Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases Department, La Paz University Hospital, Madrid, Spain.
Pediatrics Department, Niño Jesús University Hospital, Madrid, Spain.
Acta Paediatr. 2022 Aug;111(8):1573-1582. doi: 10.1111/apa.16368. Epub 2022 Apr 28.
We investigated prolonged symptoms in children after COVID-19, including the clinical characteristics and risk factors.
This multicentre retrospective study focused on 451 children under 18 years old who were diagnosed with symptomatic COVID-19 between 14 March and 31 December 2020. Persistent symptoms were analysed with a telephone questionnaire by the attending physicians from 1 August to 30 September 2021. A control group of 98 with no history of COVID-19, who were treated for other reasons, was also included.
Most (82.0%) of the cases had mild infections that required outpatient care and 5.1% were admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU). We found that 18.4% had symptoms that lasted 4-12 weeks. There were also 14.6% who were symptomatic for longer than 12 weeks and the odds risks were higher for children aged 5 years or more (OR 3.0), hospitalised (OR 3.9), admitted to the PICU (OR 4.3) and with relatives who were symptomatic for 12 weeks or more (OR 2.8). The controls had similar percentages of prolonged symptoms, despite having no history of COVID-19, especially those who were older than 5 years.
This study confirmed that a worrying percentage of children had prolonged symptoms after COVID-19.
我们研究了儿童感染新冠病毒后持续存在的症状，包括临床特征和危险因素。
这是一项多中心回顾性研究，纳入了 2020 年 3 月 14 日至 12 月 31 日期间被诊断为有症状新冠病毒感染的 451 名 18 岁以下的儿童。2021 年 8 月 1 日至 9 月 30 日，由主治医生通过电话问卷调查评估持续性症状。同时还纳入了 98 名无新冠病毒感染史、因其他原因接受治疗的儿童作为对照组。
大多数（82.0%）病例为轻症，需要门诊治疗，5.1%的患儿需要入住儿科重症监护病房（PICU）。我们发现 18.4%的患儿症状持续 4-12 周，14.6%的患儿症状持续 12 周以上，5 岁及以上患儿的风险更高（OR3.0），住院（OR3.9）、入住 PICU（OR4.3）和有症状持续 12 周或以上的亲属（OR2.8）。尽管对照组无新冠病毒感染史，但也有类似比例的患儿出现持续症状，尤其是年龄大于 5 岁的患儿。
本研究证实，新冠病毒感染后，相当比例的儿童存在持续存在的症状。
