Nationwide insights on early childhood neurodevelopment during a global health crisis: evidence from COVID-19 in South Korea.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted early childhood environments globally, raising concerns about its potential impacts on neurodevelopment. Although early childhood is a critical developmental period, large-scale evidence from South Korea - where strict social distancing and unique caregiving structures were in place - remains limited. We aim to evaluate age- and domain-specific neurodevelopmental outcomes among children aged 0-5 years before and during the pandemic, focusing on differences by age and sex.

Methods

We analysed children aged 0-5 years using data from a national health screening programme and a pre-post comparison design with repeated cross-sectional data. We compared the pre-pandemic (July 2018-March 2020) and pandemic (April 2020-December 2021) pe

SUBMITTER: Kim AY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12796865 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature