Evaluation of Complications of Covid-19 in Children Admitted to Shahid Sadoughi Hospital in Yazd (March 2020 - March 2021)

The World Health Organization first reported outbreaks of COVID-19 in 2019 in Wuhan, China. Limited studies have been performed on long-term complications after the acute phase of this disease in children. This study aimed to evaluate the long-term outcomes of children who had previously been hospitalized with COVID-19.

In this cross-sectional study, long-term complications in 105 children less than 18 years of age suspected of having Covid-19 disease were assessed (2020-2021). This evaluation was performed by completing a questionnaire by patients' families three months after discharge and collecting information from the patients' records at the time of hospitalization. Participants were also classified into four age groups. Finally, the data were analyzed using SPSS software version 19. P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

All 105 children suspected of having COVID-19 who were hospitalized during the mentioned period were included in this study, but the families of 80 children completed the questionnaire. The most common long-term complications in the patients were mood disorders (35.2%), loss of appetite (22.9%), and fatigue (20%), respectively. It has also been found that with the increasing age of the patients, the incidence of complications has increased.

 This study results demonstrated that the most common side effects observed in trimester follow-up of children with COVID-19 are mood disorders, loss of appetite, and fatigue, respectively. Thus, post-COVID-19 complications cannot be dismissed among children and adolescents. Controlled population-based studies and further in-depth analyses are needed to confirm their impact on individuals and health care systems.