Atlanta—Children and adolescents who have recovered from COVID-19 face much higher risks of certain cardiovascular and renal conditions, as well as type 1 diabetes, compared with those who were not infected by the SARS-C0V-2 virus, according to a new report.
The article in the Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report pointed out that the comparative rates were significant:
• Acute pulmonary embolism (adjusted hazard ratio = 2.01), myocarditis, and cardiomyopathy (1.99)
• Venous thromboembolic event (1.87)
• Acute and unspecified renal failure (1.32)
• Type 1 diabetes (1.23).
The researchers from the CDC emphasized that all of those conditions usually are rare or uncommon in the study population. Their analysis looked at increased incidence rates of several symptoms and conditions during the 31 to 365 days after a diagnosis of COVID-19 among children and adolescents aged 0 to 17 years.
While elevated risks of onset for some conditions (i.e., diabetes and myocarditis) had been previously reported, the new analysis was the first to report acute pulmonary embolism, venous thromboembolic event, acute renal failure, coagulation and hemorrhagic disorders, and cardiac dysrhythmias as post-COVID conditions among children and adolescents.
"These findings can be used to apprise health care professionals and caregivers about new symptoms and conditions that occur among children and adolescents in the months after SARS-CoV-2 infection," the authors wrote. "COVID-19 prevention strategies, including vaccination for all eligible persons aged >6 months, are critical for preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection and subsequent illness and for reducing the public health impact of post-COVID symptoms and conditions."
For the study, the CDC used data from a large medical claims database, assessing nine potential post-COVID symptoms and 15 potential post-COVID conditions among 781,419 U.S. children and adolescents aged 0 to 17 years with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19. Those patients were compared with 2.3 million children and adolescents without recognized COVID-19 during March 1, 2022, to January 31, 2022. The analysis identified several symptoms and conditions with elevated adjusted hazard ratios among patients with COVID-19 (compared with those without).
When the patients were stratified into three age groups (2-4, 5-11, and 12-17 years), the unadjusted incidences of symptoms and conditions differed among them.
The researchers reported that among children aged 2 to 4 years, the highest aHRs for patients with COVID-19 compared with patients without COVID-19 were for myocarditis and cardiomyopathy (aHR = 2.39), acute and unspecified renal failure (1.52), and coagulation and hemorrhagic disorders (1.47).
"Unlike other age groups, children aged 2-4 years had higher rates of asthma diagnosis (1.12) and respiratory signs and symptoms (1.07) after COVID-19," they noted.
For children aged 5 to 11 years, the highest aHRs for patients with COVID-19 compared with those without were for myocarditis and cardiomyopathy (2.84), venous thromboembolic event (2.69), and acute and unspecified renal failure (1.38).
Among adolescent patients aged 12 to 17 years, the highest aHRs for those with COVID-19 compared with those without were for acute pulmonary embolism (2.03), myocarditis and cardiomyopathy (1.66), and venous thromboembolic event (1.52), according to the report.
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