The Corona period has imposed restrictions on the whole of society. According to data from the DAK, there are clear consequences for the health of children and adolescents. Girls are particularly affected.
Erfurt (dpa/th) – In the corona pandemic, anxiety disorders in children and adolescents in Thuringia have increased significantly, according to the health insurance company DAK. Girls in particular suffer from this much more often than before the corona virus, as well as from depression and obesity, as the child and youth report by the DAK-Gesundheit for Thuringia shows.
The report is based on billing data from around 17,000 children and young people up to the age of 17 from Thuringia who are insured with the health insurance company.
In 2021, around 69 percent more girls aged 10 to 14 with anxiety disorders received medical attention compared to 2019. For boys of the same age, on the other hand, the number rose by only seven percent. The number of schoolgirls newly diagnosed with depression increased by 49 percent compared to the time before the pandemic. For boys of the same age, on the other hand, it fell by 49 percent. With an increase of 33 percent, there were also significantly more new cases among 15- to 17-year-old girls than among boys, where an increase of twelve percent was recorded.
DAK country chief Marcus Kaiser called the increasing number of depression and anxiety disorders diagnosed for the first time among young people particularly worrying. “Many girls and boys are not doing well. We urgently need to do something.” Politicians and experts from all areas involved would have to start emergency programs and offers of help together. “We know from other studies that girls find it easier to open up and talk about their problems. Boys tend to suppress them and take refuge in media consumption, for example,” said Kaiser. Experts therefore expect the number of mental illnesses and behavioral disorders to increase in the medium term, including among teenagers.
The data also shows a clear increase in the number of obesity cases (morbid overweight). Extrapolated to all insured children from 5 to 17 years, around 7,000 had to be treated medically in 2021 alone because of severe obesity in Thuringia, it was said. In the five to nine-year-old age group, there were 73 percent more obesity diagnoses and thus by far the strongest increase in the course of the corona pandemic.
The number of hospital stays among children and adolescents fell by 20 percent in 2021 compared to 2019. The number of visits to the doctor remained constant. The decline in infectious diseases was particularly large at minus 21 percent. In 2021, twelve percent fewer children and adolescents were prescribed medicines than in the pre-Corona period. The number of antibiotics prescribed fell by 42 percent, and that of reserve antibiotics by as much as 49 percent.
According to its own information, DAK-Gesundheit is the third largest health insurance company in Germany with 5.5 million insured persons.
