In a recent study published in the journal JAMA , researchers attempted to characterize childhood long COVID by investigating its most common disease symptoms in children (6-11 yrs; n = 898) and adolescents (12-17; n = 4,478). Study: Characterizing Long COVID in Children and Adolescents . Image Credit: Deborah Lee Rossiter/Shutterstock.
com Introduction They further categorized these symptoms into distinct phenotypes using cluster analysis. Finally, researchers used the results of these investigations to develop an empirically derived index, thereby allowing future researchers greater clarity when diagnosing and treating the condition. Findings revealed that long COVID pathology during childhood is distinct compared to adults and between children and adolescents.
Symptoms were observed to take 10% longer (556 versus 506 days) to manifest in adolescents than in children. While 14 symptom phenotypes were shared across school-age children and adolescents, 4 and 3 phenotypes were unique in the former and latter groups, respectively. These findings highlight the need for separate evaluation, research, and treatment against long COVID in these poorly understood populations.
Background Clinically termed “post-acute sequelae of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection (PASC)”, long COVID is an increasingly prevalent condition plaguing between 10-78% of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) survivors (n = ~65 million). The condition is characterized by C.