A study supported by the National Institutes of Health and published in JAMA shows that long COVID symptoms can affect children differently based on their age.
The new study indicates that adolescents were most likely to experience daytime tiredness/sleepiness or low energy; body, muscle or joint pain; headaches; and trouble with memory or focusing. The most common long COVID symptom for school-aged children was headaches, followed by trouble with memory or focusing, trouble sleeping, and stomach pain.
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The study also indicated that young people experienced prolonged symptoms after COVID-19 infection in almost every organ system. Most children had symptoms affecting more than one system, the study said.
“Most research characterizing long COVID symptoms is focused on adults, which can lead to the misperception that long COVID in children is rare or that their symptoms are like those of adults,” said Dr. David Goff, division director for the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences at the NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. “Because the symptoms can vary from child to child or present in different patterns, without a proper characterization of symptoms across the life span, it’s difficult to know how to optimize care for affected children and adolescents.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists 20 different ailments as common long COVID symptoms. The symptoms can range from prolonged coughs and fevers, symptoms common in primary COVID-19 infections, to neurologic and cardiovascular symptoms.
Many people with long COVID complain of persistent fatigue, drowsiness and brain fog.
The CDC said that women, Hispanic and Latino people, people who experienced more severe COVID-19 illness, those with underlying health conditions, adults over age 65, and people who did not get a COVID-19 vaccine are at the highest risk of developing long COVID.
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The study found that adults and adolescents had more overlap regarding long COVID symptoms, but younger children tend to have different symptoms.
Researchers want to better understand why this is.
“The symptoms that make up the research index are not the only symptoms a child may have and they’re not the most severe, but they are most predictive in determining who may have long COVID,” Dr. Rachel Gross associate professor in the departments of pediatrics and population health at New York University Grossman School of Medicine, said in a statement.
Researchers also want to begin examining whether children under age 5 experience long COVID.
