Long COVID in non-hospitalised children and young people: A national matched cohort study. (The CLoCk study)

Abstract

The commonest persisting symptoms after COVID in children and young people (CYP) are fatigue, headache, shortness of breath and persisting loss of smell. Early in the pandemic, many symptoms of long COVID were reported almost as commonly in negative controls giving rise to a debate whether these were the consequence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus per se or of the health and social restrictions of a ‘long pandemic’. Latterly, there are virtually no ‘negative controls’ to allow further exploration of this. Mental health outcomes also showed little difference from controls. Predictors of long COVID in CYP are older age, female sex, minority ethnicity and impaired pre-COVID-19 health and wellbeing. Vaccines prevent acute Covid-19 and hence long COVID arising from post-vaccination contact but there is little evidence in CYP that vaccination mitigates existing long COVID.