When symptoms from a COVID infection persist for weeks to months after the initial infection, it is called Long COVID. This has been studied carefully in adults. But what about kids (age 6-11) and adolescents (age 12-17)?
An extensive study was done by Gross RS and colleagues. The results were published in JAMA.2024;332 (14):1174-1188. They studied kids and teens with a history of COVID and compared them to kids and teens who had not had COVID.
They found that adolescents with Long COVID had persistent symptoms very much like adults with Long COVID. The most common symptoms they had were: daytime tiredness/sleepiness or low energy (80%), body/muscle/joint pain (60%), headache (55%), and trouble with memory/focus (47%).
School-age children with Long COVID had these ongoing symptoms most often: headache (57%), trouble with memory/focus (44%), trouble sleeping (44%), and stomach pain (43%).
Although these symptoms in the school-aged children and adolescents were the most common ones, they collectively had symptoms from almost every organ system. For example, adolescents were prone to a change in or loss of smell and/or taste.
The kids and teens with Long COVID had poorer overall health and quality of life. Clearly, we need to better understand the pathophysiology behind these symptoms, so more effective treatment can be found.
This study also tells us that Long COVID affects school-age children differently than adolescents. Our research and treatment needs to target these two groups differently.
Peter M. Hartmann, MD
Family Medicine & Psychiatry
