Physical health of care-experienced young children in high-income countries: A scoping review

Care-experienced children – also referred to as children in out-of-home care, children in foster care, or looked after children – face additional barriers to good physical health compared to those without care experience. Despite good health in early years being vital to long-term quality of life, there is little research on physical health outcomes in young care-experienced children. This scoping review aimed to collate and review peer-reviewed published literature to identify gaps and inform future research and policy. Standard rigorous scoping review methods were applied. Studies were included if they reported on physical health outcomes affecting children under seven years in high-income countries with care experience. MEDLINE, CINAHL, and Web of Science Core Collection databases were searched. Searches yielded 17,363 results, and 36 articles were included. Studies took place in kinship, foster, residential, and adoptive care settings. Synthesis of results identified poor physical development in terms of height and weight, poor dental health, dermatological conditions, anaemia, and low immunisation rates as substantial health problems among young care-experienced children. However, strong conclusions about the causes and relative prevalence of most conditions could not be drawn. This was often due to a lack of comparator groups, failure to adjust for socioeconomic variables, insufficient reporting about care context, and heterogeneity in study methods. Future work would benefit from relevant comparator groups, clear reporting of participant socioeconomic characteristics and care settings, and limiting focus to specific developmental stages.