November 13, 2020

Estimation of US Children’s Educational Attainment and Years of Life Lost Associated With Primary School Closures During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Public Health Policy and Practice

Keywords (Tags): public health

• An analytical model estimated that closing public primary schools may be associated with an estimated 5.53 million years of life lost among US children. The authors first determined that missed instruction was associated with a mean loss of 0.31 years of final educational attainment for boys and 0.21 years for girls. By extrapolating from the known association of reduced educational attainment with reduced life expectancy, the decisional analytic model found around 1.47 million additional years of life lost could result from school closures.

Christakis et al. (Nov 12, 2020). Estimation of US Children’s Educational Attainment and Years of Life Lost Associated With Primary School Closures During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic. JAMA Network Open. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.28786