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Anxiety disorders in children and adolescents increased so much during the Corona period

According to the health insurance company DAK, anxiety disorders in children and adolescents in Schleswig-Holstein have increased significantly during the corona pandemic.

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Anxiety disorders in children and adolescents increased so much during the Corona period

According to the health insurance company DAK, anxiety disorders in children and adolescents in Schleswig-Holstein have increased significantly during the corona pandemic. Girls between the ages of 15 and 17 are particularly affected. Compared to the pre-Corona period, they suffer significantly more often from depression, anxiety disorders and obesity, as can be seen from the child and youth report by the DAK-Gesundheit for Schleswig-Holstein.

In 2021, compared to 2019, around 59 percent more young people aged 15 to 17 with anxiety disorders and 25 percent more with depressive episodes received medical care. Girls were more affected than boys with a 69 percent increase in anxiety disorders and a 38 percent increase in depression. In the 10- to 14-year-old age group, the number of treatments for an anxiety disorder increased by 1 percent among girls, but there was a decrease of 7 percent among boys.

The report is based on accounting data from around 42,000 children and young people up to the age of 17 from Schleswig-Holstein who are insured with the DAK. The data also shows a significant increase in the number of obesity cases (morbid overweight) compared to the pre-Corona period. In the five to nine year old age group, there were 35 percent more obesity diagnoses. The increase was significantly greater for girls at 42 percent than for boys at 29 percent. In the 15 to 17 age group, the difference between boys and girls is even clearer: 1 percent for male adolescents, 21 percent for female adolescents.

DAK country chief Cord-Eric Lubinski called the increasing number of depressions diagnosed for the first time in young girls particularly worrying. “We must not leave the affected children and their parents alone with the problems. Together, politicians and experts from all areas involved must assess the consequences of the pandemic in the short term and start emergency programs and offers of help.”

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 20 percent. In 2021, ten 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 48 percent.

According to its own information, DAK-Gesundheit is the third largest health insurance company in Germany with 5.5 million insured persons, around 240,000 of them in Schleswig-Holstein.

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