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. 2022 Nov 16;11(22):6772.
doi: 10.3390/jcm11226772.

The Prevalence, Characteristics and Risk Factors of Persistent Symptoms in Non-Hospitalized and Hospitalized Children with SARS-CoV-2 Infection Followed-Up for up to 12 Months: A Prospective, Cohort Study in Rome, Italy

Danilo Buonsenso  1   2   3 , Ekaterina Pazukhina  4   5 , Carolina Gentili  1 , Luigi Vetrugno  6 , Rosa Morello  1 , Margherita Zona  1 , Alessia De Matteis  1 , Federico D'Ilario  1 , Roberta Lanni  7 , Teresa Rongai  7 , Patrizia Del Balzo  7 , Maria Teresa Fonte  7 , Michele Valente  7 , Cristina De Rose  1 , Daniel Munblit  8   9   10 , Louise Sigfrid  11 , Piero Valentini  1   2
Affiliations

The Prevalence, Characteristics and Risk Factors of Persistent Symptoms in Non-Hospitalized and Hospitalized Children with SARS-CoV-2 Infection Followed-Up for up to 12 Months: A Prospective, Cohort Study in Rome, Italy

Danilo Buonsenso et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

Previous studies assessing the prevalence of COVID-19 sequelae in children have included either a small number of children or a short follow-up period, or have only focused on hospitalized children. We investigated the prevalence of persistent symptoms amongst children and assessed the risk factors, including the impact of variants. A prospective cohort study included children (≤18 years old) with PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. The participants were assessed via telephone and face-to-face visits at 1-5, 6-9 and 12 or more months post-SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis using the ISARIC COVID-19 follow-up survey. Of the 679 children enrolled, 51% were female; 488 were infected during the wild virus wave, and 29 were infected with the Alpha, 42 with the Delta and 120 with the Omicron variants. Fatigue (19%), headache (12%), insomnia (7.5%), muscle pain (6.9%) and confusion with concentration issues (6.8%) were the most common persistent symptoms. Families reported an overall improvement over time, with 0.7% of parents interviewed at 12 months or more of the follow-up period reporting a poor recovery. Patients that had not recovered by 6-9 months had a lower probability of recovering during the next follow-up period. Children infected with a variant or the wild virus had an overall similar rate of persistent symptoms (although the pattern of reported symptoms differed significantly) and recovery rates. Conclusions: Recovery rates after SARS-CoV-2 infection improved as time passed from the initial infection, ranging from 4% of children having poor recovery at 1-5 months' follow-up to 1.3% at 6-9 months and 0.7% at 12 months. The patterns of persistence changed according to the variants involved at the time of infection. This study reinforces that a subgroup of children develop long-lasting persistent symptoms and highlights the need for further studies investigating the reasons behind the development of PCC.

Keywords: COVID-19; Long COVID; SARS-CoV-2; children; post-COVID condition.

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Conflict of interest statement

D.B. received a grant to study Long COVID in children from Pfizer and Roche Italia.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The coexistence of the ten most commonly reported symptoms.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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