Risk factors for severe COVID-19 in hospitalized children in Canada: A national prospective study from March 2020–May 2021

  1. Daniel S. Farrar
  2. Olivier Drouin
  3. Charlotte Moore Hepburn
  4. Krista Baerg
  5. Kevin Chan
  6. Claude Cyr
  7. Elizabeth J. Donner
  8. Joanne E. Embree
  9. Catherine Farrell
  10. Sarah Forgie
  11. Ryan Giroux
  12. Kristopher T. Kang
  13. Melanie King
  14. Melanie Laffin Thibodeau
  15. Julia Orkin
  16. Naïm Ouldali
  17. Jesse Papenburg
  18. Catherine M. Pound
  19. Victoria E. Price
  20. Jean-Philippe Proulx-Gauthier
  21. Rupeena Purewal
  22. Christina Ricci
  23. Manish Sadarangani
  24. Marina I. Salvadori
  25. Roseline Thibeault
  26. Karina A. Top
  27. Isabelle Viel-Thériault
  28. Fatima Kakkar
  29. Shaun K. Morris

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Abstract

No abstract available

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  1. Version published to 10.1016/j.lana.2022.100337
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2022.04.06.22273409: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsConsent: Participants could consent to follow-up from the study team for clarification in case of incomplete or discrepant data elements, and consent was provided for 96% of reported cases.
    IRB: Approval was obtained from Research Ethics Boards at Health Canada-PHAC (
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Study design and procedures: The Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program (CPSP) is a public health surveillance network which actively collects national, population-based data regarding rare childhood disorders, and is jointly operated by the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) and Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).
    Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program
    suggested: None

    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: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    This study has several limitations. First, case reporting to CPSP is conducted on a voluntary basis and not all SARS-CoV-2 hospitalizations were identified. Reporting fatigue towards the end of the study period may have biased case reporting in favour of more severe cases and therefore, severity outcomes may be overestimated. Moreover, testing indications may have varied by jurisdiction throughout the study period, such that not all admissions may have been tested for SARS-CoV-2 at all times. The reported minimum incidence proportions are therefore underestimates, but may still be useful to compare age-specific rates of hospitalization. Second, indications for ICU transfer may differ by centre and some children may have been admitted to ICU for precautionary purposes only. In this study, nine (of 98) children met criteria for severe disease because of their ICU admission and otherwise lacked features of severe COVID-19 (e.g. respiratory support requirements beyond low-flow oxygen or organ system involvement). Third, as the pandemic progressed, the case report form could not be amended to include variables such as SARS-CoV-2 lineage, length of hospital stay, and maternal immunization status. Fourth, our analysis of risk factors was conducted within hospitalized patients only, and therefore may differ from risk factors of severe disease among all children with COVID-19. Analyses of risk factors could not be conducted within age strata and for example, effects of obesity may not...

    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 10.1101/2022.04.06.22273409v1 on medRxiv