The corona crisis has left clear traces in the psyche of many young people. Girls in particular did not cope well with the situation. An investigation is now providing details.
Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – depression, anxiety, eating disorders – according to figures from the health insurance company DAK-Gesundheit, girls react more strongly to the corona pandemic than boys. “The results of our child and youth report show that adolescent girls in the south-west are particularly suffering from the pandemic,” said DAK country manager Siegfried Euerle at the presentation of the DAK child and youth report 2022. This also makes it clear that girls and boys participate differently handle the burdens.
The number of 10- to 14-year-old girls with depression diagnosed for the first time in 2021 increased by 86 percent compared to the pre-Corona period. In the case of boys of the same age, on the other hand, the rate of new cases fell by a quarter. According to the information, there were also significantly more new cases among 15 to 17-year-old girls than among boys of the same age, with an increase of 48 percent; their number rose by 13 percent.
According to Tobias Banaschewski, Medical Director of the Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, the increase is at least partly related to the reduced personal contacts during the pandemic. This and other pandemic-related factors increased feelings of social isolation and loneliness as well as fears for the future. Girls are generally more likely to be affected by depressive disorders.
The report also showed that the number of new cases of bulimia – binge eating followed by vomiting – and anorexia doubled. More than 11 out of 1,000 girls aged 15 to 17 were diagnosed for the first time in 2021. In 2019, the number of newly affected girls was just under 5 out of 1000. According to the findings of the DAK, this corresponds to an increase of 800 additional newly ill schoolgirls compared to 2019, extrapolated to all insured young girls in the south-west.
For Jochen Meyburg, Medical Director of the Clinic for Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at the RKH Klinikum Ludwigsburg, anorexia is the result of a feeling of insecurity and imponderables. “The girls are suffering from having less and less control and are trying to at least keep control of their own bodies,” explained the expert.
The data also showed an increase of one quarter each in the age groups of 10 to 14 year olds and 15 to 17 year olds among young people newly diagnosed with anxiety disorders.
The pandemic also had an impact on the weight of children and young people, which slowed down sporting activities. The strongest increase in new cases of obesity – also known as obesity – was recorded in children aged five to nine, with a quarter. In the age groups of 10 to 14 year olds and 15 to 17 year olds there was also a plus of twelve percent each. Extrapolated to all insured persons aged 5 to 17, around 25,000 girls and boys had to receive medical treatment for the first time in 2021 because they were extremely overweight.
And another consequence of the pandemic: In the second year of Corona, fewer children and adolescents came to doctors’ practices and hospitals than before the pandemic – in 2021 the number fell by one percent in practices and by 17 percent in clinics; there were large declines in outpatient and inpatient care for infectious diseases (minus 28 percent) and respiratory diseases (minus 13 percent).
DAK state chief Euerle summed it up: “Our current report for Baden-Württemberg reveals an urgent need for action in many facets of child and youth health in the south-west.” He called for a cross-departmental strategy for health promotion from childhood to avoid long-term consequences.
In an answer to a request from the SPD parliamentary group in the state parliament, the Ministry of Social Affairs refers to additional youth social work offices in schools and in mobile child and youth social work to support children and young people in coping with the individual consequences of the pandemic.
