In The News: Long COVID Differs Between Kids and Adolescents, Study Finds

Medpage Today reports on a longitudinal observational study of long COVID and children in the United States. Researchers identified 14 prolonged symptoms that were more common in those with a history of COVID-19 compared to those without such a history. Their models of kids ages 6-11 years and adolescents ages 12-17 years, which were adjusted for sex, race and ethnicity, found four distinct phenotypes and three distinct phenotypes in the respective groups.

There was significant symptom overlap between the two groups, with some of these being more prominent in a particular group. Among the most common prolonged symptoms in school-aged children were headache, trouble with memory/focusing, trouble sleeping, and stomach pain. For adolescents, the more common symptoms included daytime tiredness/sleepiness or low energy, body/muscle/joint pain, headaches, and trouble with memory/focusing.

Researchers noted that the majority of long COVID research has focused on adult populations. This has in turn led to gaps in understanding and treatment of the condition in pediatric populations. Pointing to the distinct symptom clusters differences between the two groups, researchers stated there may be different long COVID experiences for school-aged and adolescent children, and they may vary as children grow and their bodies develop.

The researchers said their study was a “first step” in identifying and treating long COVID in children and adolescents. Their research led the author to state a one-size-fits-all approach would be ineffective in diagnosing the condition and that each group would likely require customized screening, diagnostic tools, and treatments in the future, as more is understood.

The study was comprised of 751 school-age kids with previous COVID-19 infection and 147 with no previous infection. Mean age was 8.6 years, 49% were girls, 60% were white, 34% were Hispanic/Latino/Spanish, and 11% were Black or African American. On the adolescent side, they included 3,109 adolescents with previous infection and 1,360 without previous. Mean age was 14.8, 48% were girls, 73% were white, 21% were Hispanic/Latino/Spanish, and 13% were Black or African American. Prolonged symptoms were those lasting more than four weeks

PIDS member Suchitra Rao contributed an accompanying editorial. She wrote that along with the adult study, “the publications highlight the importance of evaluating chronic conditions such as [long COVID] across the life spectrum because there were clear differences in presentations among children, adolescents, and adults.” Such as that headaches were more common in children, and “a gastrointestinal symptom cluster was unique to school-age children, whereas gastrointestinal symptoms were more likely to be present in conjunction with other symptoms in adults.”