Abstract of Master’s Dissertation
No.1

CourseThesis
Title

Master of Science

Name

Tomomi Nakaike

A systematic review and meta-analysis: impact of the COVID-19 pandemic onviolence against children

Abstract of Master’s Dissertation
Background : Violence against children is one of the most crucial issues of public health.
Several international studies have shown that 3 out of 4 children 2-4 years old are the victims ofviolence, and those cases are likely to be under-reported. Abused children are more likely toexperience catastrophic damage and, in some cases, result in death. COVID-19 lockdowns
caused interruption of child protection services or economic/psychological burdens on parents.
It has become challenging for teachers or school counselors to detect and report signs of abuse.
Therefore, a systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to assess the impact of
COVID-19 on violence against children.
Objectives :The primary outcome of this study is to identify the impact of the COVID-19

pandemic on violence against children. Secondary outcomes are (1) identifying the risk factorsof violence in children, such as family structure, socio-economic status, age, gender, race, andplace to live before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. (2)To identify methods of detecting orreporting cases of violence against children before and during the COVID-19 pandemic(Schools, Police, Parents, Online, NGO). (3)To investigate the change in violence againstchildren reported cases before and during COVID-19.
Methods :Systematic review and meta-analysis are required to be the “Preferred reporting

item for systematic review and meta-analysis statement” (PRISMA). The protocol wasregistered in PROSPERO with the registration number CRD42022377660.
Literature searching, title and abstract screening, full-text screening, and data extraction havebeen done as a group. The Meta-analysis was conducted using STATA, pooled OR was
calculated, and subgroups by countries and gender were analyzed. The comparison of cases ofreporters for violence against children was observed from one included study＊

The abstract, containing background, objectives, methods, results and conclusion should notexceed 300-500words and printed double sided on A4 paper)＊＊Abstract of Master’s Dissertation
No.2

CourseMaster of ScienceName

Tomomi Nakaike

Results: A total of 11 publications were included in the meta-analysis. Main meta-forest plotsand sub-grouped by countries and gender were generated to compare the prevalence andproportion of three types of violence against children pre-COVID-19 and during COVID-19
period. Overall, no remarkable impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the prevalence andproportion of any type of violence against children among total abuse was identified.
Furthermore, only one article reported a significant decrease in reporters from school staff,
which might cause an under-report of child violence.

Conclusion:
Systematic review and meta-analysis of 11 publications could not detect a significant impact of
COVID-19 pandemic on violence against children. The results interpretation should becautious because the number of violence during the pandemic could be under-reported due to asignificant decrease in reporters from school staff.

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