Post-COVID-19 Symptoms, Conditions ID’d in U.S. Children

THURSDAY, Aug. 4, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Postinfection symptoms and conditions with elevated adjusted hazard ratios among children and adolescents with versus without COVID-19 are described in a report published in the Aug. 5 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Lyudmyla Kompaniyets, Ph.D., from the CDC COVID-19 Emergency Response Team, and colleagues assessed nine potential post-COVID-19 symptoms and nine potential post-COVID-19 conditions among 781,419 U.S. children and adolescents aged 0 to 17 years with COVID-19 compared to 2,344,257 U.S. children and adolescents without COVID-19 during March 1, 2020, to Jan. 31, 2022. Symptoms and conditions with elevated adjusted hazard ratios among patients with versus without COVID-19 were identified.

The researchers found that the highest hazard ratios were recorded for acute pulmonary embolism, myocarditis and cardiomyopathy, venous thromboembolic event, acute and unspecified renal failure, and type 1 diabetes (adjusted hazard ratios, 2.01, 1.99, 1.87, 1.32, and 1.23, respectively); within this study population, all were rare or uncommon. Lower adjusted hazard ratios near or below 1.0 were seen for symptoms and conditions that were most common in the study population. Compared with those without COVID-19, patients with COVID-19 were less likely to experience respiratory signs and symptoms, symptoms of mental conditions, muscle disorders, neurological conditions, anxiety and fear-related disorders, mood disorders, and sleeping disorders.

“These findings can be used to apprise health care professionals and caregivers about new symptoms and conditions that occur among children and adolescents in the months after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection,” the authors write.