WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A research letter, published in JAMA Pediatrics, found that long Covid may have affected more than a million children in the U.S. with most of them showing limited activity levels.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines long COVID as a serious illness that can result in chronic conditions that can continue for months or even years.
Researchers analyzed data from the 2023 National Health Interview Survey. They randomly selected one child aged 17 or under from each sample household within the survey. The parents of these selected children responded to questions regarding long Covid symptoms in their children, whether it lasted for more than three months, and whether their child suffered from any other illness before contracting long Covid.
'Parents of these children were asked about the reduced ability to carry out any daily activities vs prior to having COVID-19 illness (not at all, a little, a lot),' the authors wrote.
The findings showed that around 1 million children are believed to have experienced long COVID in 2023 and about 293,000 were experiencing the condition when the survey was being conducted. The illness was more prevalent among children aged between 12 and 17.
The data further revealed that long Covid was most common among children from families with income of less than $100,000. It was more prevalent among Hispanic and non-Hispanic white children compared to non-Hispanic Black and Asian children.
'The large proportion of children experiencing [long COVID] with any activity limitation highlights the need to examine the severity of activity limitation, functional outcomes, and days lost from school,' the authors noted.
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