Compared to adults, children and/or adolescents have a mild COVID-19 course with a good prognosis

Objectives:
What are the overall prevalence of clinical signs, symptoms and radiological findings in children and/or adolescents with COVID-19?

Study design:
This review article included 19 eligible studies for a total of 2,855 children and/or adolescents with COVID-19. Mean age was 6.9 ± 7.0 years; 50.3% males.

Results and conclusions:   
The investigators found approximately 47% of children and/or adolescents with COVID-19 had fever [95% CI = 22% to 72%, I2 = 98.6%], 37% cough [95% CI = 15% to 63%, I2 = 98.6%], 4% diarrhea [95% CI = 0% to 12%, I2 = 92.2%], 2% nasal congestion [95% CI = 0% to 7%, I2 = 87.7%], 1% dyspnea [95% CI = 0% to 7%, I2 = 91.5%] and 0% abdominal pain [95% CI = 0% to 1%, I2 = 76.3%].

The investigators found children and/or adolescents with COVID-19 presented mild symptoms in 79% [95% CI = 65 to 91%, I2 = 93.5%] of cases, whereas only 4% [95% CI = 1% to 9%, I2 = 76.4%] were critical.

The investigators found among those with pneumonia on computed tomography, 26.4% [95% CI = 13% to 41%, I2 = 80.8%] presented a unilateral involvement, 16% [95% CI = 5% to 29%, I2 = 81.2%] had bilateral involvement and 9% [95% CI = 0%-24%, I2 = 88.7%] had interstitial pneumonia.

The investigators concluded compared to adults, children and/or adolescents have a mild COVID-19 course with a good prognosis. This review article provides new and consistence information on the clinical and radiological characteristics of COVID-19 in pediatrics. This review article may help to fight COVID-19 in pediatric population.

Original title:
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Children and/or Adolescents: A Meta-Analysis by Mantovani A, Rinaldi E, […], Dalbeni A.

Link:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41390-020-1015-2

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