Long-term physical, mental and social health effects of COVID-19 in the pediatric population: a scoping review

  1. Madeline Borel
  2. Luyu Xie
  3. Olivia Kapera
  4. Adrian Mihalcea
  5. Jeffrey Kahn
  6. Sarah E. Messiah

Reviewed by

Read the full article See related articles

Listed in

Log in to save this article

Abstract

Background

The majority of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) symptom presentations in adults and children appear to run their course within a couple of weeks. However, a subgroup of adults has started to emerge with effects lasting several months or more after initial infection, which raises questions about the long-term physical, mental and social health effects of COVID-19 in the pediatric population. The purpose of this review was to determine these impacts well into the second year of the pandemic.

Methods

A search was conducted using PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct, and Cochrane between 11/1/2019 and 9/1/2021. Search inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) COVID-19 illness and symptoms in children; (2) severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in children; (3) English language; and (4) human studies only.

Results

The few studies that have documented long-term physical symptoms in children show that fatigue, difficulty in concentrating (brain fog), sleep disturbances, and sensory problems are the most reported outcomes. Most studies examining the impact of COVID-19 in pediatric populations have focused on initial clinical presentation, and symptoms, which are similar to those in adult populations. In addition, COVID-19 has had a moderate impact on children and adolescents’ social environment, which may exacerbate current and future physiological, psychological, behavioral, and academic outcomes.

Conclusions

There are limited studies reporting long physical symptoms of COVID-19 in the pediatric population. However, pediatric COVID-19 cases are underreported due to low rates of testing and symptomatic infection, which calls for more longitudinal studies. Children who have experienced COVID-19 illness should be monitored for long physiological, psychological, behavioral, and academic outcomes.

Article activity feed

  1. Version published to 10.1007/s12519-022-00515-7
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.09.17.21263743: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Ethicsnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    A comprehensive search was completed via PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct, medRxiv, and COCHRANE with the following search terms: Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome or MIS-C, Pediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome Temporally Associated with SARS-Co-V-2 or PIMS-TS, COVID-19 and/or SARS-CoV-2, and children, adolescent, adolescence, or pediatric.
    PubMed
    suggested: (PubMed, RRID:SCR_004846)
    SARS-CoV-2
    suggested: (BioLegend Cat# 946101, RRID:AB_2892515)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.09.17.21263743v1 on medRxiv