Evidence on child and adolescent health interventions for The Lancet’s Optimizing Child Health Series 2020

 

Improvements in maternal and child health outcomes over the last few decades have left decision-makers with the impression that successful interventions can also be applied to children over five with the same degree of success. However, there is a lack of evidence on health interventions targeting children and adolescents. Early adolescents have either been neglected or are relegated to adult interventions and services. There is now a pressing need to fill this gap, particularly in the 5-15 age group.

This project will produce a set of new systematic reviews on the effectiveness of interventions within multiple domains explicitly targeting the under-served age group of 5-15 years. The reviews will cover three areas of child and adolescent health: infectious diseases, non-communicable disease prevention, and sexual and reproductive health. Issues of mental health and online/social media harassment will also be explored.

In addition to the reviews, the project will strengthen the methodological capacity of junior researchers across several lower and middle-income countries through online courses on systematic review methods. Partnerships will be built across a diverse set of geographic teams. These junior researchers will also have the opportunity to author manuscripts and participate in dissemination and communication efforts related to the review’s findings.

The project will be led by the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health along with partner organizations working in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and West Africa. Project outcomes will include a set of eight reviews that will be disseminated as a multi-paper journal supplement to The Lancet’s Optimizing Child and Adolescent Health Series in 2020. Findings will also be disseminated through the Countdown 2030 initiative, which supports the monitoring and measurement of women's, children's, and adolescents' health in the 81 countries that account for 95% of maternal and 90% of all child deaths worldwide. New technical guidelines will be developed in cooperation with the World Health Organization.