Science| Media Centre| | September 2021 | First findings from world's largest study on long COVID in children

This pre-print  presents the results of the CLoCk study, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), compares thousands of young people aged 11-17 years old with matched controls. study 3 months after PCR-testing in children and young people across England. 

Introduction: We describe post-COVID symptomatology in a national sample of 11-17-year-old children and young people (CYP) with PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to test-negative controls.

Methods and analysis: A cohort study of test-positive (n equal to 3 065) and age-, sex- and geographically-matched test-negative CYP (n equal to 3 739) completed detailed questionnaires 3 months post-test.

Results: At PCR-testing, 35.4 per cent of test-positives and 8.3 per cent of test-negatives had any symptoms whilst 30.6 per cent and 6.2 per cent , respectively, had 3+ symptoms. At 3 months post-testing, 66.5 per cent of test-positives and 53.3 per cent of test-negatives had any symptoms, whilst 30.3 per cent and 16.2 per cent , respectively, had 3+ symptoms. Latent class analysis identified two classes, characterised by "few" or "multiple" symptoms. This latter class was more frequent among test-positives, females, older CYP and those with worse pre-test physical and mental health.

Discussion: Test-positive CYP had a similar symptom profile to test-negative CYP but with higher prevalence of single and, particularly, multiple symptoms at PCR-testing and 3 months later.

Long COVID - the physical and mental health of children and non-hospitalised young people 3 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection; a national matched cohort study (The CLoCk) Study [Preprint]

Expert reaction to preprint from the CLoCk study looking at long COVID in children is available from Science Media Centre

This free site is ad-supported. Learn more
​