Long-COVID in children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analyses
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
The objective of this systematic review and meta-analyses is to estimate the prevalence of long-COVID in children and adolescents and to present the full spectrum of symptoms present after acute COVID-19. We have used PubMed and Embase to identify observational studies published before February 10th, 2022 that included a minimum of 30 patients with ages ranging from 0 to 18 years that met the National Institute for Healthcare Excellence (NICE) definition of long-COVID, which consists of both ongoing (4 to 12 weeks) and post-COVID-19 (≥ 12 weeks) symptoms. Random-effects meta-analyses were performed using the MetaXL software to estimate the pooled prevalence with a 95% confidence interval (CI). Heterogeneity was assessed using I 2 statistics. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviewers and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) reporting guideline was followed (registration PROSPERO CRD42021275408). The literature search yielded 8373 publications, of which 21 studies met the inclusion criteria, and a total of 80,071 children and adolescents were included. The prevalence of long-COVID was 25.24%, and the most prevalent clinical manifestations were mood symptoms (16.50%), fatigue (9.66%), and sleep disorders (8.42%). Children infected by SARS-CoV-2 had a higher risk of persistent dyspnea, anosmia/ageusia, and/or fever compared to controls. Limitations of the studies analyzed include lack of standardized definitions, recall, selection, misclassification, nonresponse and/or loss of follow-up, and a high level of heterogeneity.
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Cites
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- Authors
- Lopez-Leon, S., Wegman-Ostrosky, T., Ayuzo del Valle, N. C., Perelman, C., Sepulveda, R., Rebolledo, P. A., Cuapio, A., & Villapol, S.
- Affiliations
- Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (MX)
- Emory University (US)
- Houston Methodist (US)
- Corresponding author
- Villapol, Sonia
- ORCID
- Venue
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2022-06-23
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 9950-9950
- ISSN
- 2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9226045
- OpenAlex
- W4283324651
- Cited by
- 528
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 63 · 2025: 99 · 2024: 171 · 2023: 142 · 2022: 52 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 16.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- medRxiv (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Greater South Information System
- Funders
- Houston Methodist Research Institute
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Keywords
- long COVID, children, adolescents, prevalence, persistent fatigue, mood symptoms, sleep disorders, dyspnea, anosmia, COVID-19 pandemic
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome, Adolescent, Ageusia, Child, Child, Preschool, Humans, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Prevalence
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