Research Article: Children and Young People with Long COVID—Comparing Those Seen in Post-COVID Services with a Non-Hospitalised National Cohort: A Descriptive Study
Abstract:
Background: Post-COVID services have been set up in England to treat children with ongoing symptoms of Long COVID. To date, the characteristics of children seeking treatment from these services has not been described. Purpose: (1) to describe the characteristics of children aged 11–17 referred to the Pan-London Post-COVID service and (2) to compare characteristics of these children with those taking part in the United Kingdom’s largest research study of Long COVID in children (CLoCk). Design: Data from 95 children seeking treatment from the Post-COVID service between May 2021 and August 2022 were included in the study. Their demographic characteristics, symptom burden and the impact of infection are described and compared to children from CLoCk. Results: A high proportion of children from the Post-COVID service and CLoCk reported experiencing health problems prior to the pandemic. Almost all Post-COVID service children met the research Delphi definition of Long COVID (94.6%), having multiple symptoms that impacted their lives. Symptoms were notably more severe than the participants in CLoCk. Conclusions: This study describes the characteristics of children seeking treatment for Long COVID compared to those identified in the largest longitudinal observational study to date. Post-COVID service children have more symptoms and are more severely affected by their symptoms following infection with COVID-19 than children in the CLoCk study. Research to understand predisposing factors for severity and prognostic indicators is essential to prevent this debilitating condition. Evaluation of short- and long-term outcomes of interventions by clinical services can help direct future therapy for this group.
Introduction:
It is widely accepted a significant proportion of children and young people (hereafter referred to as ‘young people’) experience persistent symptoms following Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) exposure [1]. The clinical manifestations of paediatric COVID-19 are diverse with fever and cough being amongst the most common reported symptoms [2,3]. Children who continue to experience symptoms for at least 12 weeks post infection are said to have Long COVID (also known as Post-COVID-19…
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