Characteristics of pediatric COVID-19 patients admitted to the emergency department and factors associated with pneumonia.

OBJECTIVES: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that causes a respiratory illness, continues to be a global pandemic. In this study, we purpose to identify the features of children with COVID-19 and the factors affecting disease severity.

METHODS: This is a retrospective, observational study was conducted on patients who presented with suspicion of COVID-19 from April 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021, at a tertiary care medical center in Turkey. The characteristics of 640 children who were confirmed to have COVID-19 by real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction were retrieved from medical records.

RESULTS: The mean age of the cases was 10 ± 6 years, and 56% of them were male. Seasonal difference did not affect the number of cases. The majority of the cases ( n = 501, 78%) were infected by family members. Fever (67%) and cough (38%) were common complaints. The mean duration of fever was 1.9 ± 1.1 days. One-fourth of the cases were asymptomatic, 462 (72%) had mild upper respiratory tract infections, and 18 (3%) had pneumonia. Patients with pneumonia were more likely to have comorbidities and had a longer fever duration (both P < 0.001). Fever, cough, and respiratory distress were more common in patients with pneumonia ( P = 0.010, P = 0.023, and P < 0.001, respectively). The mean C-reactive protein (CRP) value of the patients with pneumonia was significantly higher than that of the others ( P < 0.001). A total of 70 (11%) complicated patients were hospitalized, 5 of them requiring intensive care admission. All hospitalized patients were discharged with recovery.

CONCLUSIONS: Although pediatric COVID-19 patients tended to have a mild disease, some children with comorbidities can still develop a severe illness. CRP value is a useful indicator in the diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia. Furthermore, the prevalence rate of COVID-19 did not decrease with hot seasons.