Post-COVID-19 and other changes in the health status of children and adolescents associated with the transmission of COVID-19
Authors: Dmytryshyn Olha , Marushko Yurii 
Published: December 2023

determining the state of physical and psycho-emotional health of children and adoles-cents who have suffered from COVID-19 is an urgent diagnostic problem, the solution of which will

provide an opportunity for early detection of long-term and distant consequences of the coronavirusdisease. The aim is to analyze the frequency, duration, and clinical manifestations of post-COVID-19

in children and adolescents, as well as other changes in health status associated with having experi-enced COVID-19. Materials and methods: 155 children aged 6 to 18 took part in the study. Among

them, 120 children with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 in the anamnesis and a period afterCOVID-19 of more than 12 weeks (the main group) and 35 somatically healthy children of the sameage who did not suffer from COVID-19 and formed the control group. The distribution of children

in the main group took place taking into account the severity of COVID-19. Children who contract-ed mild COVID-19 formed the first group (n=49). Group II included children who suffered from

COVID-19 of moderate severity (n=40). Group III included children who contracted COVID-19 with

a severe course (n=31). General clinical (analysis of anamnesis data, objective examination, assess-ment of complaints and identification of post-covid symptoms), survey (assessment of the general

state of health of children before and after COVID-19, assessment of the level of fatigue), statisticalresearch methods (MedStat statistical packages, EZR). Results: post-COVID-19 was detected in 46children (38.3%) of the main group. Among the children of the I group, the post-COVID-19 conditionwas determined in 10 children (20.4%), in the II group – in 14 (35.0%) children, and the III group – in22 (71.0%) children. The median duration of the post-COVID-19 in the children of the I group was 3.5months [3; 4], in the II group – 5 months, in the III group – 7 months (p<0.05 between groups whenperforming multiple comparisons according to Dunn’s test). The median duration of post-COVID-19symptoms in children of the main group was 5 months. The average value (X) and standard deviation(±SD) of the number of symptoms of post-COVID-19 in children of the main group were 5.17±2.7symptoms: in children of the I group – 1.70±0.82 symptoms, in the II group – 4,29±1.38 symptoms,in the III group – 7.32±1.76 symptoms. The most frequently recorded post-COVID-19 symptoms wereanxiety (15; 95% CI 9.1-22.0), increased fatigue (13.3; 95% CI 7.8-20.0), sleep disturbances (12 .5;95% CI 7.2-19.1), depressive disorders (11.7; 95% CI 6.5-18.1), impaired concentration of attention(10.8; 95% CI 5.9-17,1). Analysis of survey data on changes in physical and psychological/emotional

health status revealed a worsening of outcomes after COVID-19 compared to the period before coro-navirus disease. The median score on the Chalder fatigue scale in the children of the main group was

12, in the control group – 7 (p<0.001 by the Wilcoxon W-test for two independent samples). Conclu-sions: Acute COVID-19 harms the health of children and adolescents, which can be manifested by the

development of a post-COVID-19. The risk of developing post-COVID-19 depends on the degree ofseverity of the transferred coronavirus disease. The post-COVID-19 condition was detected in 71% ofchildren who suffered from severe COVID-19, which is significantly higher compared to children whosuffered from COVID-19 of mild and moderate severity. Children with COVID-19 scored worse onthe Chalder Fatigue Scale than healthy children. There was also a tendency to worsen the assessmentof the health status of children in a comparative analysis of the physical and psychological/emotionalcomponents before and after COVID-19.