Exposure of children and adolescents with disabilities to disasters, emergencies and the COVID-19 pandemic
Citation: Mann M, McMillan JE, Silver EJ, et al. Children and adolescents with disabilities and exposure to disasters, terrorism, and the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Scoping Review. Current Psychiatry Reports. 2021:23;80.
Language: Abstract and full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: Nothing noted.
What is this? Children and adolescents with disabilities might experience poorer health outcomes during and after disasters or terrorism.
In this scoping review, the authors searched for studies and reviews that assessed the exposure of children and adolescents with disabilities to disasters, terrorism and the COVID-19 pandemic. They restricted their searches to articles published in English between January 2015 and July 2021. They included 15 articles related to disasters and terrorism, and 67 articles related to COVID-19.
What was found: Children and adolescents with disabilities were at greater risk of poorer health (including mental health) outcomes due to disasters but disaster planning mitigated some of the negative consequences, and structural and societal factors were also found to influence preparedness and post-disaster recovery.
At the time of this review, the included studies showed that children and adolescents with disabilities were at higher risk of COVID-19 infection and subsequent poor outcomes.
At the time of this review, the included studies showed that the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic across various spheres of life had further hindered children with disabilities, impeding their regular access to medical care.
Implications: The authors of the review concluded that the vulnerability of children and adolescents with disabilities to disasters is likely to increase, given more frequent and severe events due to climate change. They stated that future research should include a larger population with varying disability types to ensure generalizability of findings, should assess disaster preparedness in families of children with disabilities at different levels (individual, family, community, regional, national, and global), and should seek to identify best practices on trauma-informed treatments for children with disabilities after disasters and emergencies, as well as the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and families, to inform public health delivery and monitoring interventions.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed their findings in the context of race, culture, education, socioeconomic status, age, disability and time-dependent relationships (during and after emergencies and disasters).
This summary was prepared by Yasmeen Saeed, checked by Cristián Mansilla and Ana Pizarro, and finalized by Mike Clarke.