Thanks to the St John’s Student Opportunities Fund, Health and Human Sciences undergraduate student Hen Larson was able to access essential research tools to conduct a systematic review on early puberty in girls during the COVID-19 pandemic. She reflects on how this support enabled her to explore a pressing public health question and complete her dissertation with confidence.
A systematic review? What’s that? That was the thought running through my head after a meeting with my dissertation supervisor on a crisp October morning. I walked straight from the Anthropology building to the Bill Bryson Library and checked out a book titled Doing A Systematic Review: A Student’s Guide. Phew, given that a Systematic Reviews for Dummies is yet to be published, this will do.
As I quickly learned, a systematic review is a comprehensive, methodical analysis of published research on a specific topic. It involves identifying all relevant studies using set criteria, tracking every paper you include or exclude, and then synthesising the findings narratively or with statistical meta-analysis. The process sounded daunting. However, the methodology proved to be very applicable to my dissertation topic. Allow me to explain.
I study BSc Health and Human Sciences, which, for an unfamiliar audience, is a degree within the Department of Anthropology at Durham University that specifically considers health and healthcare from a holistic perspective, integrating both biological and social considerations. I’m particularly interested in how social environments and lifestyle influence population health, which I approach within an evolutionary framework. My dissertation topic of interest was a further exploration of the literature that appeared to suggest that children during the COVID-19 pandemic were going through puberty earlier. Specifically, the literature seemed to indicate that cases of central precocious puberty (a clinical diagnosis of puberty commencing before age eight in girls and nine in boys) were on the rise. I wanted to find out if that trend could be evidenced in girls only and if the trend persisted post-pandemic. Thus, a review of the available literature globally would be an appropriate method to do so.
My supervisor recommended Covidence, a systematic review tool, that helps manage the large amount of data processing in a streamlined manner. It sounded fabulous, however, one catch: it was triple figures for an annual subscription. Thanks to the generous support of St John’s Opportunity Fund, I was able to access this instrumental tool, which enabled me to systematically review over one hundred articles and extract data from the final 20 studies included with confidence and accuracy. I’m grateful that the support I received through the Opportunities Fund enabled me not only to complete my dissertation effectively, but to explore a research topic I care deeply about.
And now, having recently submitted my dissertation, I’m happy to say I can share with you the findings: I found that there was an increase in girls diagnosed with precocious puberty during the pandemic as compared to both before and after, which I considered to be indicative of the lifestyle stressors of the time period.
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