National COVID-19 lockdown and trends in help-seeking for violence against children in Zimbabwe: an interrupted time-series analysis.

BACKGROUND: An estimated 1.8 billion children live in countries where COVID-19 disrupted violence prevention and response. It is important to understand how government policies to contain COVID-19 impacted children's ability to seek help, especially in contexts where there was limited formal help-seeking prior to the pandemic. We aimed to quantify how the national lockdown in Zimbabwe affected helpline calls for violence against children, estimated the number of calls that would have been received had the lockdown not occurred and described characteristics of types of calls and callers before and after the national lockdown. METHODS: We used an interrupted time series design to analyse the proportion of violence related calls (17,913 calls out of 57,050) to Childline Zimbabwe's national child helpline between 2017 to 2021. We applied autoregressive integrated moving average regression (ARIMA) models to test possible changes in call trends before and after the March 2020 lockdown and forecasted how many calls would have been received in the absence of lockdown. In addition, we examined call characteristics before and after lockdown descriptively. RESULTS: The proportion of violence related calls decreased in the 90 days after the lockdown and subsequently returned to pre-COVID-19 levels. We estimate that 10.3% (95% confidence interval [CI] 6.0-14.6%) more violence related calls would have occurred in this period had there not been a lockdown. Violence was increasingly reported as occurring in children's households, with fewer reports from children and formal child protection actors. CONCLUSIONS: Lockdowns dramatically change everyday life and strain populations, which is unlikely to reduce violence prevalence but may reduce help-seeking. The three months after COVID-19 lockdowns may be key time periods when help-seeking for violence decreases drastically. Policy makers should ensure that in-person and remote services support help-seeking. Interventions and campaigns may additionally want to target adult female family members in encouraging reporting of suspected violence cases when they occur within households and are perpetuated by other family members. We suggest a composite approach of scaling-up remote reporting mechanisms that are accessible and geographically well-distributed, establishing non-traditional sites for help seeking within communities and continuing limited in-person home visitation for known cases of violence.

Quantifying diurnal changes in NO2 due to COVID-19 stay-at-home orders in New York City.

Introduction: Policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the NY on Pause stay-at-home order (March 22 - June 8, 2020), substantially reduced traffic and traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) in New York City (NYC). We evaluated the magnitude of TRAP decreases and examined the role of modifying factors such as weekend/weekday, road proximity, location, and time-of-day. Methods: Hourly nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations from January 1, 2018 through June 8, 2020 were obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency's Air Quality System for all six hourly monitors in the NYC area. We used an interrupted time series design to determine the impact of NY on Pause on NO2 concentrations, using a mixed effects model with random intercepts for monitor location, adjusted for meteorology and long-term trends. We evaluated effect modification through stratification. Results: NO2 concentrations decreased during NY on Pause by 19% (-3.2 ppb, 95% confidence interval [CI]: -3.5, -3.0), on average, compared to pre-Pause time trends. We found no evidence for modification by weekend/weekday, but greater decreases in NO2 at non-roadside monitors and weak evidence for modification by location. For time-of-day, we found the largest decreases for 5 am (27%, -4.5 ppb, 95% CI: -5.7, -3.3) through 7 am (24%, -4.0 ppb, 95% CI: -5.2, -2.8), followed by 6 pm and 7 pm (22%, -3.7 ppb, 95% CI: -4.8, -2.6 and 22%, -4.8, -2.5, respectively), while the smallest decreases occurred at 11 pm and 1 am (both: 11%, -1.9 ppb, 95% CI: -3.1, -0.7). Conclusion: NY on Pause's impact on TRAP varied greatly diurnally. Decreases during early morning and evening time periods are likely due to decreases in traffic. Our results may be useful for planning traffic policies that vary by time of day, such as congestion tolling policies.

Violence against children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected children's risk of violence in their homes, communities and online, and has compromised the ability of child protection systems to promptly detect and respond to cases of violence. However, the need to strengthen violence prevention and response services has received insufficient attention in national and global pandemic response and mitigation strategies. In this paper, we summarize the growing body of evidence on the links between the pandemic and violence against children. Drawing on the World Health Organization's INSPIRE framework to end violence against children, we illustrate how the pandemic is affecting prevention and response efforts. For each of the seven INSPIRE strategies we identify how responses to the pandemic have changed children's risk of violence. We offer ideas for how governments, policy-makers, and international and civil society organizations can address violence in the context of a protracted COVID-19 crisis. We conclude by highlighting how the current pandemic offers opportunities to improve existing child protection systems to address violence against children. We suggest enhanced multisectoral coordination across the health, education, law enforcement, housing, child and social protection sectors. Actions need to prioritize the primary prevention of violence and promote the central role of children and adolescents in decision-making and programme design processes. Finally, we stress the continued need for better data and evidence to inform violence prevention and response strategies that can be effective during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

La pandémie de maladie à coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) a eu un impact sur le risque de violence à l'égard des enfants à domicile, au sein de leur communauté et en ligne. Elle a également empêché les systèmes de protection de l'enfance d'identifier rapidement les situations de ce type et d'y réagir dès que possible. Pourtant, la nécessité de renforcer les services de prévention et d'action en la matière n'a pas été suffisamment prise en compte dans les stratégies nationales et internationales d'intervention et d'atténuation des effets de la pandémie. Le présent document reprend l'accumulation de preuves confirmant les liens entre pandémie et violence à l'égard des enfants. En nous inspirant du cadre INSPIRE de l'Organisation mondiale de la Santé visant à mettre fin à la violence à l'encontre des enfants, nous illustrons la façon dont la pandémie affecte les efforts de prévention et d'action. Pour chacune des sept stratégies INSPIRE, nous déterminons comment les mesures de lutte contre la pandémie ont influencé le risque de violence envers les enfants. Nous formulons des pistes pour que les gouvernements, les législateurs, les institutions internationales et les organisations de la société civile puissent remédier à cette violence dans un contexte de crise prolongée due à la COVID-19. En guise de conclusion, nous mettons en lumière les opportunités qu'offre la pandémie actuelle d'améliorer les systèmes existants de protection de l'enfance pour mieux combattre la violence envers les enfants. Nous suggérons d'accroître la collaboration entre les secteurs de la santé, de l'éducation, du maintien de l'ordre, du logement, des droits de l'enfant et de la protection sociale. Les actions entreprises doivent se focaliser sur la prévention primaire de la violence et promouvoir le rôle central des enfants et adolescents dans les processus de conception de programmes et de prise de décisions. Enfin, nous soulignons le besoin permanent de données et de preuves fiables pour orienter les stratégies de prévention et d'intervention face à la violence, afin de garantir leur efficacité pendant et après la pandémie de COVID-19.

La pandemia de la enfermedad por coronavirus (COVID-19) ha afectado al riesgo de violencia infantil que sufren los niños en sus hogares, comunidades y en línea, y ha puesto en peligro la capacidad de los sistemas de protección infantil para detectar y responder rápidamente a los casos de violencia. Sin embargo, la necesidad de reforzar los servicios de prevención y respuesta a la violencia no ha recibido suficiente atención en las estrategias nacionales y mundiales de respuesta y mitigación de la pandemia. En este documento, resumimos el creciente conjunto de pruebas sobre los vínculos entre la pandemia y la violencia infantil. Basándonos en el marco INSPIRE de la Organización Mundial de la Salud para poner fin a la violencia infantil, ilustramos cómo la pandemia está afectando a los esfuerzos de prevención y respuesta. Para cada una de las siete estrategias de INSPIRE, identificamos cómo las respuestas a la pandemia han cambiado el riesgo de violencia infantil. Ofrecemos ideas sobre cómo los gobiernos, los responsables políticos y las organizaciones internacionales y de la sociedad civil pueden abordar la violencia en el contexto de una crisis prolongada de COVID-19. Concluimos destacando cómo la pandemia actual ofrece oportunidades para mejorar los sistemas de protección infantil existentes para abordar este tipo de violencia. Sugerimos una mayor coordinación multisectorial en los sectores de la salud, la educación, la aplicación de la ley, la vivienda y la protección social infantil. Las acciones deben priorizar la prevención primaria de la violencia y promover el papel central de los niños y adolescentes en los procesos de toma de decisiones y en el diseño de programas. Por último, subrayamos la necesidad permanente de contar con mejores datos y pruebas para fundamentar las estrategias de prevención y respuesta a la violencia que puedan ser eficaces durante la pandemia de COVID-19 y seguir vigentes cuando ésta pase.