Six to 12 months after COVID-19 infection, very few children developed post-COVID-19 conditions (PCCs) as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), a prospective Canadian study found.
At 6 months after being tested for SARS-CoV-2 in pediatric emergency departments (EDs), just 0.52% of children who tested positive had symptoms and changes in quality of life consistent with PCCs, as compared with 0.10% of those testing negative (P=0.02). At 12 months, these rates rose to 0.67% and 0.16%, respectively (P=0.02).
Overall, quality of life did not differ between the two groups, Stephen Freedman, MDCM, MSc, from Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute in Calgary, and colleagues reported in JAMA Network Openopens in a new tab or window.
“Our team was surprised by the near identical findings regarding the frequency of the PCCs between study groups,” Freedman told MedPage Today. “Although [PCCs] were slightly more common among children who were infected by SARS-CoV-2, the fact that quality of life did not differ speaks to the overall minimal impact that SARS-CoV-2 infection plays in leading to chronic symptoms in children.”