Post-COVID syndrome can strike at any age

Children, adolescents and adults have recorded significant new illnesses across 13 distinct diagnosis and symptom complexes after infection with COVID-19, according to a new study published in PLOS Medicine by researchers at the Technische Universität Dresden.

Studies have established that some people affected by COVID-19 suffer long-term health problems following the acute phase of the disease. However, evidence on post-acute (post-COVID-19) syndrome is still limited, especially for children and adolescents.

In the new study, using a healthcare dataset covering nearly half the German population and spanning all of 2019 and 2020, researchers identified patients with a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19.

They then compared the occurrence of pre-specified diagnoses, entered into the medical record at least three months post-infection, in these patients (11,950 children and adolescent and 145,184 adults) to a control cohort of more than 750,000 individuals with matched age, sex and pre-existing medical conditions, without PCR-confirmed COVID-19.

Overall, children and adolescents who had been infected with COVID-19 were 30% more likely than controls to have documented health problems beginning three months or more after infection. Adults with COVID-19 were 33% more likely than controls to have health problems.

Among children and adolescents, rates of malaise/fatigue/exhaustion, cough and throat/chest pain were the most strongly associated with a prior COVID-19 infection, but rates of headache, fever, abdominal pain, anxiety disorder and depression were also increased. Among adults, smell/taste disturbance, fever, and dyspnoea (or difficulty breathing) were most strongly associated with COVID-19 infection but also more common were cough, throat and chest pain, hair loss, fatigue, exhaustion and headache.

‘The results of the present study indicate that post-COVID-19 syndrome cannot be dismissed among children and adolescents,’ according to Martin Roessler of Technische Universität Dresden. ‘We found that COVID-19 diagnosis was associated with higher long-term demand for healthcare services as reflected in outpatient and inpatient diagnoses of a broad set of outcomes more than three months after confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. While children and adolescents appear to be less affected than adults, these findings are statistically significant for all age groups.’

Roessler adds that the findings provide robust evidence that the long-term impact of COVID-19 will be seen across the population – not just older people or those with pre-existing medical issues. ‘The results of our study indicate that people of all age groups, including children and adolescents, are at risk of post-COVID-19 syndrome.’