Effect of COVID-19 confinement on mental state and lifestyles in children and adolescents: a systematic review

Abstract

The confinement due to COVID-19 has a psychosocial impact on the population, currently there is not enough evidence on its effects on lifestyles and mental health in children and adolescents. The objective is to know the scientific evidence accumulated between March 2020 and May 2022 on the effects of confinement on mental health and lifestyles in children and adolescents. A systematic analysis was carried out in specialized databases and the keywords were "healthy lifestyles"; "Kids"; "teenagers"; "stress"; "depression"; "anxiety"; sedentary lifestyle; “SARS-Cov-2” or “COVID-19” and “confinement”. The results yielded 3843 articles, 13 met the inclusion criteria. The results show that confinement alters mental health and promotes overweight and obesity, although online intervention studies positively promote the mental and physical health of children and adolescents in confinement. In conclusion, confinement negatively affected mental and physical health, the application of intervention studies that promote physical and mental activity will help to reduce the effects of COVID-19 confinement in children and adolescents.

Keywords

• lockdown
• covid-19
• sars-cov-2
• mental health
• stress
• anxiety
• depression
• sendentarism
• children and teenagers