PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Pinto Pereira, Snehal M
AU  - Nugawela, Manjula D
AU  - Rojas, Natalia K
AU  - Shafran, Roz
AU  - McOwat, Kelsey
AU  - Simmons, Ruth
AU  - Ford, Tamsin
AU  - Heyman, Isobel
AU  - Ladhani, Shamez N
AU  - Cheung, Emily Y
AU  - Fox-Smith, Lana
AU  - Dalrymple, Emma
AU  - Stephenson, Terence
TI  - Post-COVID-19 condition at 6 months and COVID-19 vaccination in non-hospitalised children and young people
AID  - 10.1136/archdischild-2022-324656
DP  - 2023 Apr 01
TA  - Archives of Disease in Childhood
PG  - 289--295
VI  - 108
IP  - 4
4099  - http://adc.bmj.com/content/108/4/289.short
4100  - http://adc.bmj.com/content/108/4/289.full
SO  - Arch Dis Child2023 Apr 01; 108
AB  - Objectives To describe the physical and mental health of children and young people (CYP) 6 months after infection with SARS-CoV-2 and explore whether this varies by COVID-19 vaccination.Design A non-hospitalised, national cohort of people aged 11–17 years old with PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and PCR negatives matched at study invitation, by age, sex, region and date of testing who completed questionnaires 6 months after PCR testing. The questionnaire included 21 symptoms and standardised scales (eg, EQ-5D-Y and Chalder Fatigue Scale).Results 6407 test-positive and 6542 test-negative CYP completed the 6-month questionnaire: 60.9% of test-positive vs 43.2% of test-negative CYP reported at least one symptom 6 months post-test; 27.6% of test-positive vs 15.9% of test-negative CYP reported 3+ symptoms. Common symptoms at 6 months were tiredness and shortness of breath among both test-positive and test-negative CYP; however, the prevalence of both was higher in test-positive (38.4% and 22.8%, respectively) compared with test-negative CYP (26.7% and 10.9%, respectively). 24.5% test-positive vs 17.8% test-negative CYP met the Delphi research definition of long COVID. Mental health, well-being, fatigue and health-related quality of life scores were similar among test-positive and test-negative CYP 6 months post-test. Similarly, symptomatology was similar among COVID-19-vaccinated and COVID-19-unvaccinated test-positive and test-negative CYP.Conclusions Six-months post-PCR testing, CYP who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 had similar symptoms to those who tested negative, but test-positive CYP had higher symptom prevalence. Mental health, well-being, fatigue and health-related quality of life were similar among test-positive and test-negative CYP, and symptoms at 6 months were similar in COVID-19 vaccinated and unvaccinated.Trial registration number ISRCTN 34804192.