"Lancet-Child Adolescent Health"
"Lancet Child Adolescent Health" published the largest study to date on the long-term symptoms of the new crown in children aged 0-14 years old. Studies have confirmed that children diagnosed with COVID-19 may experience long-term symptoms of COVID-19 that last for more than two months. The study used a national Danish child sample and matched the positive COVID-19 case group with the control group without a history of COVID-19 infection. The
study collected national survey data from children aged 0-14 in Denmark, the largest study to date to study long-term symptoms of new coronavirus (Long COVID).
• This study investigated the duration of long-term symptoms of the new crown and the quality of life score, confirming that children who tested positive for the new crown were more likely to experience at least one symptom that lasted for more than 2 months after infection compared to children who had never been diagnosed with new crown pneumonia.
• In the older group (12-14 years old), children who tested positive had higher quality of life scores and lower anxiety reporting rates compared with children who did not test positive for COVID-19, which may be related to their perception of pandemics and social restrictions.
• The authors said that understanding the burden of long-term symptoms of new crown in children is crucial to guiding clinical identification, care strategies, and social decision-making such as lockdown and vaccination. The authors recommend further research to better understand the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on all children.
"The Lancet Child Adolescent Health" published the largest study to date on the long-term symptoms of the new crown in children aged 0-14. study confirmed that children diagnosed with COVID-19 may experience long-term symptoms of COVID-19 that last for more than two months. The study used a national Danish child sample and matched the positive COVID-19 case group with the control group without a history of COVID-19 infection.
"The overall goal of our study is to determine the prevalence of long-term symptoms of children and infants, as well as quality of life, absence of classes or daycare. The results show that although children diagnosed with COVID-19 are more likely to experience long-term symptoms than children who have never been diagnosed with COVID-19, the pandemic has affected all aspects of life in all young people. It is crucial to further study the long-term effects of pandemic on all children," said Professor Selina Kikkenborg Berg of Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark. [1]
Previously, most studies on young people's infection with the new coronavirus were mainly focused on teenagers [2], and there are few studies on infants and young children. In this study, researchers sent a questionnaire to mothers or guardians of children aged 0-14 who tested positive for COVID-19 between January 2020 and July 2021. A total of nearly 11,000 questionnaires were collected from children who tested positive for COVID-19. Subsequently, the researchers matched more than 33,000 children without a history of COVID-19 infection based on their age and gender.
This survey asked participants about 23 common long-term symptoms of COVID-19 that occurred in children (judgmented based on the rapid questionnaire for children from the Children's Long-term Symptoms of COVID-19 in January 2021) and used World Health Organization 's definition of long-term symptoms of COVID-19, that is, the symptoms last for more than two months. The most commonly reported symptoms of children aged 0-3 are mood swings, rashes and stomachache. The most commonly reported symptoms of children aged 4-11 are mood swings, memory difficulties or inattention and rashes, while fatigue, mood swings, memory difficulties or inattention are the most common among children aged 12-14. The results of the
study found that children diagnosed with COVID-19 in all age groups were more likely to have at least one symptom that lasted for two months or longer than the control group. html In the age group of 70-3 years, 40% (478/1,194) of the new coronary confirmed children developed symptoms that lasted for more than two months, compared with 27% (1,049/3,855).In the age group of 4-11 years, the proportion of long-term symptoms in the case group was 38% (1,912/5,023) and the proportion in the control group was 34% (6,189/18,372). Among the 12-14-year-old children, the proportion of long-term symptoms in the case group was 46% (1,313/2,857) and the proportion in the control group was 41% (4,454/10,789).
Nonspecific symptoms associated with long-term symptoms of the new coronavirus usually occur in healthy children. For example, headache, mood swings, abdominal pain and fatigue are common symptoms that are not related to the new coronavirus in children. However, this study shows that children who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 are more likely to have long-term and persistent symptoms than children without a history of COVID-19 infection, which means that these symptoms are manifestations of long-term symptoms of COVID-19. About one-third of children who are positive for the new coronavirus have symptoms that have not been seen before they are infected with the new coronavirus, which also proves this view. In addition, as the duration of symptoms increases, the proportion of children with the above symptoms appears to be declining.
Generally speaking, children diagnosed with COVID-19 report fewer psychological and social problems than those in the control group. In the older group, children are usually not very afraid, rarely have sleep problems, and are not worried about what will happen to them. One possible explanation is that the older group of has improved awareness of the pandemic, while children in the control group are afraid of the unknown disease and have more restrictions on their daily lives to protect themselves from being infected.
"The opportunity to conduct such research is rapidly disappearing because the vast majority of children are now infected with the new coronavirus. For example, between December 2021 and February 2022, 58% of children in Denmark have been confirmed to be infected with the new coronavirus through laboratories. Understanding the burden of long-term symptoms of COVID-19 is crucial to guide social decision-making such as clinical identification, parental care and isolation, lockdown, non-pharmaceutical interventions and vaccine strategies," said Professor Selina Kikkenborg Berg. [1]"Our findings are consistent with previous studies on long-term symptoms of COVID-19 in adolescents, These suggest that although the chances of long-term symptoms of COVID-19 in children are low, especially compared with the control group, we must recognize this problem and take it seriously. Carrying out more research will help to treat and better understand these symptoms and the long-term effects of the pandemic on children. "[1]
The authors acknowledge that there are still some limitations in this study, including the longer recall period between diagnosis and questionnaire. The study relies on data reported by parents, so the accuracy of data related to psychological symptoms is low. This may lead to selection bias, as mothers and guardians of children with more severe symptoms tend to be more willing to fill out the questionnaire, resulting in the study results representing the most severely affected children. In addition, public testing for COVID-19 only started in August 2020, which means that some children in the control group may be undetected asymptomatic infection .
Maren Rytter of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark (not involved in the study) said in a comment: "[Although] this study found that children infected with the new coronavirus have slightly more frequent occurrences of any type of long-term symptoms... but this may have a small overall impact on children who have had COVID-19, and may be much smaller than the indirect effects of the pandemic. For most children who have nonspecific symptoms after contracting the new coronavirus, these symptoms are more likely to be caused by other causes other than COVID-19, and if these symptoms are related to the new coronavirus, it is likely to disappear over time.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
This study was funded by A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation. It was conducted by researchers from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark and the University of Southern Denmark.[1] Quote direct from author and cannot be found in the text of the Article.[2] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(22)00004-9/fulltext[3] Danish database with COVID-19 data, covering all Danes with a positive COVID-19 test: https://miba.ssi.dk/forskningsbetjening/tilgaengelig-data[4] Child Long Covid Symptoms Survey: https://www.longcovidkids.org/long-covid-statistics?pgid=kkl2tuxu-fa53fc07-b96a-4584-bd85-4669b6dca6f2
* Chinese translation is for reference only, and all content shall be subject to the original text of the press release.
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