Symptoms of long COVID in children and adolescents: a scoping review.
Ariel Courbassier Santos de Gusmão, Ana Cristina Ribeiro La Scaléa, Silvia Carla da Silva André Uehara
PMID 40762988WHAT IT FOUND
Children and adolescents with long COVID commonly reported fatigue, headache, cough, sleep and mood problems, and poor concentration.
Younger children had more cough and nasal symptoms; adolescents had more emotional, cognitive and pain symptoms.
Key findings
01The most frequently recorded long-COVID symptoms across the included studies were fatigue, headache, cough, sleep disorders, mood swings or anxiety/depression, and difficulty concentrating.
02Symptom patterns differed by age: children aged 0 to 4 years had more nasal secretion and cough, while children aged 5 or older and adolescents aged 11 to 18 had more emotional instability, reduced concentration, sleep disorders, anxiety and depression, fatigue, headache, dyspnea and muscle pain.
03No included study analysed the relationship between long-COVID and sex, and no study evaluated the association between comorbidities and developing long-COVID.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only 16 studies were included, and they were mostly observational designs with different populations and symptom definitions. The review included only articles in Portuguese, English or Spanish and only articles available in full, and it excluded some indexing databases. The included studies used different age thresholds for long-COVID diagnosis, so age comparisons are not uniform. Sex findings were inconsistent, and no included study analysed the relationship between long-COVID and sex. Only one included study evaluated vaccine protection, and no study evaluated the association between comorbidities and developing long-COVID. The review mapped symptoms and did not test treatment effects.
Declared interests
The supplied text lists financial support from FAPESP and CAPES. It does not report a competing-interest declaration.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that vaccination prevents long-COVID in children. Only one included study assessed vaccine protection, and the review did not test treatment effects.