ReviewThe Pediatric infectious disease journal2021
How Common is Long COVID in Children and Adolescents?
Review in The Pediatric infectious disease journal, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 162 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
162 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Measures implemented in the school setting to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Robustness of reported postacute health outcomes in children with SARS-CoV-2 infection: a systematic review.Archives of disease in childhood · 2023Pooled it
- Prevalence and clinical presentation of long COVID in children: a systematic review.European journal of pediatrics · 2022Pooled it
- Short and Long-Term Wellbeing of Children following SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Persistent symptoms following SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst children and young people: A meta-analysis of controlled and uncontrolled studies.The Journal of infection · 2022Pooled it
- Do we need to vaccinate every child against COVID-19: What evidence suggests-A systematic review of opinions.Frontiers in public health · 2022Pooled it
- Pulmonary Dysfunction after Pediatric COVID-19.Radiology · 2023Trial
- Management of long COVID-19 in children and adolescents: from diagnosis to therapeutically approaches.Annals of medicine · 2026Review
- Article
- Reframing Patient and Parental Experience in Pediatric Healthcare: Medical Gaslighting as a Diagnostic Safety Vulnerability.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The Burden of Long-COVID-19 Among Pediatric Subjects: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Retinal microvascular alterations consistent with endothelial dysregulation in paediatric post-COVID-19 syndrome: A prospective matched-cohort study.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Factors Associated with Long COVID in the Pediatric Population: A Retrospective Case-Control Study.Clinics and practice · 2026Article
- Clinical symptom score and risk factors for predicting post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children hospitalized with COVID-19 in Taiwan.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Allergic Status, Long COVID, and Post-Restriction Respiratory Outcomes in Children: A Single-Center Questionnaire-Based Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Neurodevelopmental treatment needs after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection in young children: A cohort study.The Journal of international medical research · 2026Article
- Interdisciplinary Pediatric Long-COVID Care: A Descriptive Study of Interventions and Health-Related Quality of Life.Open forum infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Severe acute COVID-19 and early long COVID signals in paediatric cohorts: an analysis of real-world data from two health departments, Germany.BMC pediatrics · 2026Article
102 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In children, the risk of coronavirus disease (COVID) being severe is low. However, the risk of persistent symptoms following infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is uncertain in this age group, and the features of "long COVID" are poorly characterized. We reviewed the 14 studies to date that have reported persistent symptoms following COVID in children and adolescents. Almost all the studies have major limitations, including the lack of a clear case definition, variable follow-up times, inclusion of children without confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 infection, reliance on self- or parent-reported symptoms without clinical assessment, nonresponse and other biases, and the absence of a control group. Of the 5 studies which included children and adolescents without SARS-CoV-2 infection as controls, 2 did not find persistent symptoms to be more prevalent in children and adolescents with evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. This highlights that long-term SARS-CoV-2 infection-associated symptoms are difficult to distinguish from pandemic-associated symptoms.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.