TY - JOUR
T1 - Trends in Long COVID Symptoms in Japanese Teenage Patients
AU - Sakurada, Yasue
AU - Otsuka, Yuki
AU - Tokumasu, Kazuki
AU - Sunada, Naruhiko
AU - Honda, Hiroyuki
AU - Nakano, Yasuhiro
AU - Matsuda, Yui
AU - Hasegawa, Toru
AU - Ochi, Kanako
AU - Hagiya, Hideharu
AU - Ueda, Keigo
AU - Kataoka, Hitomi
AU - Otsuka, Fumio
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI, Grant Number JP22K20927 (Y.O.) and Ryobi Teien Memory Foundation (2022) in Japan (F.O.).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.
PY - 2023/2
Y1 - 2023/2
N2 - Background: Since the start of the global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), not only adults but also many children have suffered from it. However, the clinical characteristics of long COVID in children remain unclear. Methods: In this retrospective observational study conducted in a single facility, we reviewed the medical records of all long COVID patients who visited Okayama University Hospital from February 2021 to October 2022, and we compared the clinical characteristics of long COVID in teenagers (11 to 18 years of age) with those in adults. Results: Data for 452 long COVID patients including 54 teenagers (11.9%) were analyzed. Fatigue was the most frequent symptom in teenagers (55.6% of the patients) and also in adults. On the other hand, the percentage of teenagers who complained of headache, which was the second most frequent complaint, was significantly higher than the percentage of adults (35.2% vs. 21.9%, p < 0.05). A comparison of the frequencies of symptoms depending on the viral variant showed that fatigue and headache were predominant symptoms in the Omicron variant phase. Of the 50 teenagers who were enrolled in schools, 28 (56.0%) could not attend school due to long COVID symptoms. The most common symptoms as reasons for absence from school were fatigue (85.7% of the patients), headache (42.9%), and insomnia (32.1%). Conclusions: Attention should be paid to the symptoms of fatigue and headache in teenagers with long COVID.
AB - Background: Since the start of the global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), not only adults but also many children have suffered from it. However, the clinical characteristics of long COVID in children remain unclear. Methods: In this retrospective observational study conducted in a single facility, we reviewed the medical records of all long COVID patients who visited Okayama University Hospital from February 2021 to October 2022, and we compared the clinical characteristics of long COVID in teenagers (11 to 18 years of age) with those in adults. Results: Data for 452 long COVID patients including 54 teenagers (11.9%) were analyzed. Fatigue was the most frequent symptom in teenagers (55.6% of the patients) and also in adults. On the other hand, the percentage of teenagers who complained of headache, which was the second most frequent complaint, was significantly higher than the percentage of adults (35.2% vs. 21.9%, p < 0.05). A comparison of the frequencies of symptoms depending on the viral variant showed that fatigue and headache were predominant symptoms in the Omicron variant phase. Of the 50 teenagers who were enrolled in schools, 28 (56.0%) could not attend school due to long COVID symptoms. The most common symptoms as reasons for absence from school were fatigue (85.7% of the patients), headache (42.9%), and insomnia (32.1%). Conclusions: Attention should be paid to the symptoms of fatigue and headache in teenagers with long COVID.
KW - Delta variant
KW - Omicron variant
KW - post-COVID-19 condition
KW - schoolchildren
KW - teenagers
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U2 - 10.3390/medicina59020261
DO - 10.3390/medicina59020261
M3 - Article
C2 - 36837463
AN - SCOPUS:85148869692
SN - 1010-660X
VL - 59
JO - Medicina (Lithuania)
JF - Medicina (Lithuania)
IS - 2
M1 - 261
ER -