Estimate: 10.5 Million Children Lost a Parent, Caregiver to COVID-19

About 10.5 million children worldwide experienced COVID-19-associated loss of parents and caregivers through May 1, 2022, according to estimates based on World Health Organization (WHO) data. COVID-19 orphaned an estimated 7.5 million of those children. Using excess deaths data from WHO, The Economi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association 2022-10, Vol.328 (15), p.1490-1490
Main Author: Bellandi, Deanna
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Caregivers
Children
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Parents
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:About 10.5 million children worldwide experienced COVID-19-associated loss of parents and caregivers through May 1, 2022, according to estimates based on World Health Organization (WHO) data. COVID-19 orphaned an estimated 7.5 million of those children. Using excess deaths data from WHO, The Economist, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), researchers estimated the number of bereft children in every country to measure COVID-19's effect on orphanhood and caregiver loss. WHO data are more conservative than findings from IHME and The Economist, the study authors explained. The WHO regions of Africa and Southeast Asia had more children affected by orphanhood and caregiver loss than had the Americas, Eastern Mediterranean, European, and Western Pacific regions through May 1, 2022. Countries with the highest numbers of bereaved children in the Southeast Asia WHO region included Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Nepal. In Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa were among those with the most bereaved children, the study reported.
ISSN:0098-7484
1538-3598
DOI:10.1001/jama.2022.15475