Nutritional Advice El Mondo
Objectives:
What are the clinical features and laboratory findings in COVID-19 children?
Study design:
This review article included a total of 32 articles.
Out of the 32 publications, 3 were performed in Iran, the United States and Spain and the other 29 studies were conducted by Chinese researchers.
The total sample size consisted of 759 children, of whom 399 were male.
Results and conclusions:
The investigators found the most frequent symptoms in COVID-19 children were fever, cough, vomiting, diarrhea, sore throat and dyspnea.
The investigators found regarding the combined results of the meta-analysis, fever [46%, 95% CI = 40% to 53%], cough [37%, 95% CI = 29% to 46%), diarrhea [19%, 95% CI = 9% to 28%] and pharyngalgia [13%, 95% CI = 5% to 20%] were the most widely reported symptom.
The investigators found, besides, positive RT-PCR test results [43%, 95% CI = 33% to 53%], low oxygen saturation [38%, 95% CI = 25% to 51%] and elevated D-dimer levels [36%, 95% CI = 16% to 56%] were the most common laboratory findings.
The investigators concluded that clinical presentations are milder, the prognosis is better and the mortality rate is lower in children with COVID-19 compared with adult patients. However, children are potential carriers, like adults and can transmit the infection among the population. Therefore, early identification and intervention in pediatric patients with COVID-19 are essential in order to control the pandemic. Moreover, gastrointestinal symptoms are more common symptoms among children.
Original title:
COVID-19 infection in children: A systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical features and laboratory findings by Mansourian M, Ghandi Y, […], Mehrabi S.
Link:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7794595/
Additional information of El Mondo:
Find more information/studies on coronavirus right here.