CORONA-CODOMO HEADQUARTERS

Children aged 0-18 and parents/information dissemination to government, teachers and parents/weekly SNS report/national online surveys/quantitative and quantative

The CORONA-CODOMO headquarters is a group of researchers and doctors centered at the Department of Social Medicine and the Department of Child Psychiatry at the National Center for Child Health and Development, which aims to comprehensively understand the health, well-being and needs of children and their parents under the rapidly changing situation regarding COVID-19 and related measures, and to disseminate timely and useful information sources to promote early detection of problems, prevention and countermeasures, and by doing so minimize the negative impact of the pandemic on children’s lives.
The headquarters were launched in early April, 2020 when the emergency status was first declared in Japan. During the year they have conducted a series of five national online surveys to clarify the situation of children and families as well as their needs, and through rapid qualitative as well as quantitative analysis maintained to create high quality reports whose results have had high impact on the society, being referenced in influential documents such as the pediatric guidelines and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare White papers, as well as through heavy coverage on mass media. The headquarters have carefully and continuously disseminated useful findings from the surveys to teachers and parents, including booklets illustrating key results from the surveys and how to manage stigma, stress to all boards of education in the country, pamphlets showing tips to understanding and coping with children’s somatic symptoms in due to stress, as well as continued a weekly SNS report sharing timely, assertive and accurate information concerning COVID-19 for parents.
The group was initiated by Dr Hangai, a pediatrician, epidemiologist and a mother of two children, and currently consists of XX members. The activities have gained interest and has received funding from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare as well as the Japan Science and Technology Agency, and has 20 partner collaborators including governments, companies, universities, and non-profit organizations.

https://www.ncchd.go.jp/center/activity/covid19_kodomo/

https://europepmc.org/article/PPR/PPR241589

https://www.ncchd.go.jp/center/activity/covid19_kodomo/report/3rdinterimreport_EN_20201024MH.pdf

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/backstories/1272/

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/13491686