Department of Non-Communicable Disease Epidemiology, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, WC1E 7HT, London, UK.
Office for National Statistics, Government Buildings, Newport, UK.
BMC Infect Dis. 2023 Apr 5;23(1):201. doi: 10.1186/s12879-023-08203-1.
Both post-COVID-19 condition (long COVID) and the presence of persisting symptoms that do not meet formal definitions of post-COVID-19-condition may adversely affect quality of life and function. However, their prevalence among children and young people in England is unclear.
We used data from repeated surveys in a large cohort of English schoolchildren from the COVID-19 Schools Infection Survey (SIS) for the school year 2021/22 to describe the weighted prevalence of post-COVID-19-condition and compare persisting symptoms between individuals with a positive SARS-CoV-2 test and those with neither a positive test history nor suspected infection.
Among 7797 children from 173 schools, 1.8% of primary school pupils (aged 4 to 11 years), 4.5% of secondary school pupils in years 7-11 (aged 11 to 16 years) and 6.9% of those in years 12-13 (aged 16 to 18 years) met a definition of post-COVID-19 condition in March 2022. Specific persisting symptoms such as anxiety or difficulty concentrating were frequently reported regardless of prior infection status and increased with age: 48.0% of primary school pupils, 52.9% of secondary school pupils in years 7-11 and 79.5% in years 12-13 reporting at least one symptom lasting more than 12 weeks. Persisting loss of smell and taste, cardiovascular and some systemic symptoms were more frequently reported by those with a previous positive test.
We showed that ongoing symptoms were frequently reported by English schoolchildren regardless of SARS-CoV-2 test results and some specific symptoms such as loss of smell and taste were more prevalent in those with a positive test history. Our study emphasises the wide-ranging impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and wellbeing of children and young people.
新冠病毒感染后疾病（长新冠）以及存在不符合新冠感染后疾病正式定义的持续症状，都可能对生活质量和功能产生不利影响。然而，在英国儿童和青少年中，它们的流行程度尚不清楚。
我们使用了来自 2021/22 学年新冠学校感染调查（SIS）中一个大型英国学童队列的重复调查数据，描述了新冠感染后疾病的加权流行率，并比较了 SARS-CoV-2 检测阳性者与既无阳性检测史又无疑似感染史者之间的持续症状。
在来自 173 所学校的 7797 名儿童中，1.8%的小学生（4 至 11 岁）、4.5%的 7-11 年级中学生（11 至 16 岁）和 6.9%的 12-13 年级中学生（16 至 18 岁）在 2022 年 3 月符合新冠感染后疾病的定义。特定的持续症状，如焦虑或注意力集中困难，无论既往感染状态如何，均频繁报告，并随年龄增长而增加：48.0%的小学生、52.9%的 7-11 年级中学生和 79.5%的 12-13 年级中学生报告至少有一种持续超过 12 周的症状。既往阳性检测者更常报告持续的嗅觉和味觉丧失以及心血管和一些全身症状。
我们表明，持续症状在英国学童中频繁报告，无论 SARS-CoV-2 检测结果如何，一些特定症状，如嗅觉和味觉丧失，在阳性检测史者中更为常见。我们的研究强调了新冠大流行对儿童和青少年健康和幸福的广泛影响。
