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Long COVID-six months of prospective follow-up of changes in symptom profiles of non-hospitalised children and young people after SARS-CoV-2 testing: A national matched cohort study (The CLoCk) study.

Stephenson, T; Pinto Pereira, SM; Nugawela, MD; McOwat, K; Simmons, R; Chalder, T; Ford, T; Heyman, I; Swann, OV; Fox-Smith, L; et al. Stephenson, T; Pinto Pereira, SM; Nugawela, MD; McOwat, K; Simmons, R; Chalder, T; Ford, T; Heyman, I; Swann, OV; Fox-Smith, L; Rojas, NK; Dalrymple, E; Ladhani, SN; Shafran, R; CLoCk Consortium (2023) Long COVID-six months of prospective follow-up of changes in symptom profiles of non-hospitalised children and young people after SARS-CoV-2 testing: A national matched cohort study (The CLoCk) study. PLoS One, 18 (3). e0277704. ISSN 1932-6203 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277704
SGUL Authors: Ladhani, Shamez Nizarali

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the prevalence and natural trajectory of post-COVID symptoms in young people, despite very high numbers of young people having acute COVID. To date, there has been no prospective follow-up to establish the pattern of symptoms over a 6-month time period. METHODS: A non-hospitalised, national sample of 3,395 (1,737 SARS-COV-2 Negative;1,658 SARS-COV-2 Positive at baseline) children and young people (CYP) aged 11-17 completed questionnaires 3 and 6 months after PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection between January and March 2021 and were compared with age, sex and geographically-matched test-negative CYP. RESULTS: Three months after a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test, 11 of the 21 most common symptoms reported by >10% of CYP had reduced. There was a further decline at 6 months. By 3 and 6 months the prevalence of chills, fever, myalgia, cough and sore throat of CYP who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 reduced from 10-25% at testing to <3%. The prevalence of loss of smell declined from 21% to 5% at 3 months and 4% at 6 months. Prevalence of shortness of breath and tiredness also declined, but at a lower rate. Among test-negatives, the same common symptoms and trends were observed at lower prevalence's. Importantly, in some instances (shortness of breath, tiredness) the overall prevalence of specific individual symptoms at 3 and 6 months was higher than at PCR-testing because these symptoms were reported in new cohorts of CYP who had not reported the specific individual symptom previously. CONCLUSIONS: In CYP, the prevalence of specific symptoms reported at time of PCR-testing declined with time. Similar patterns were observed among test-positives and test-negatives and new symptoms were reported six months post-test for both groups suggesting that symptoms are unlikely to exclusively be a specific consequence of SARS-COV-2 infection. Many CYP experienced unwanted symptoms that warrant investigation and potential intervention.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © 2023 Stephenson et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Keywords: Humans, Child, Adolescent, SARS-CoV-2, Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome, COVID-19, Cohort Studies, Follow-Up Studies, Dyspnea, Fatigue, Myalgia
SGUL Research Institute / Research Centre: Academic Structure > Infection and Immunity Research Institute (INII)
Journal or Publication Title: PLoS One
Editors: Yon, Dong Keon
ISSN: 1932-6203
Language: eng
Media of Output: Electronic-eCollection
Related URLs:
Publisher License: Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0
Projects:
Project IDFunderFunder ID
MR/P020372/1Medical Research Councilhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000265
UNSPECIFIEDNational Institute for Health Researchhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000272
COVLT0022UK Research and Innovationhttps://doi.org/10.13039/100014013
UNSPECIFIEDNIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centrehttps://doi.org/10.13039/501100019256
URI: https://openaccess.sgul.ac.uk/id/eprint/117554
Publisher's version: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0277704

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