"Increase in Communication and Interaction Development Delays Among Children During COVID-19 Period"

National Medical Center Research Team Reports 10%p Increase in Developmental Delay Rate Compared to Pre-COVID
Children Receiving Medical Aid Have Higher Risk of Delay Than National Health Insurance Subscribers

A study has found that the rate of developmental delays in communication and social interaction among children increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Infectious Disease Clinical Research Team at the National Medical Center announced on the 22nd that this result was confirmed in a paper analyzing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child development in South Korea.

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The research team used health screening data for infants and toddlers from the National Health Insurance Service to compare and analyze the developmental delay rates of children aged 30 to 36 months who underwent screenings before the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2018 to February 2019) and during the pandemic (April 2020 to December 2021), with 568,495 and 512,388 children respectively. They also analyzed whether there was a difference in developmental delay rates related to the COVID-19 pandemic between children receiving medical aid and those enrolled in health insurance.

The study found that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the developmental delay rate among children aged 30 to 36 months was 17.2%, which is 10 percentage points higher than the 16.2% rate before the pandemic. In particular, the risk of developmental delay in the communication domain increased by about 21%, and the risk in the social interaction domain increased by about 15%.

For children receiving medical aid, the risk of developmental delay related to the COVID-19 pandemic was higher compared to children enrolled in health insurance. In the communication domain, the risk ratio for developmental delay was 1.41 for children receiving medical aid, while it was 1.20 for non-recipient children. In social interaction, the risk ratio was 1.30 for medical aid recipients and 1.15 for non-recipients, indicating a higher risk of developmental delay among children receiving medical aid.

The research team stated, "Tailored education is necessary for vulnerable children at higher risk of developmental delays during public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic," and added, "Cooperation among parents and child health care professionals is required to achieve this."

This study was published in the recent issue of the international medical journal BMC Medicine. Co-first authors include Kyungshin Lee, Principal Researcher at the Infectious Disease Clinical Research Center of the National Medical Center (corresponding author), and pediatric specialist Yoonyoung Choi, with infectious disease specialist Yeonjae Kim and preventive medicine specialist Myunghui Kim (Director of the Policy and Statistics Support Center) also participating as co-authors.