A new study from UK investigators shows that—while most COVID-19 patients ages 11 to 17 who reported long-COVID symptoms 3 months after the initial infection no longer experienced lingering symptoms at 2 years—29% still did.
The findings, published in the journal Communications Medicine, come from the National Long COVID in Children and Young People cohort study, which followed up on thousands of young people after their COVID-19 diagnoses.
More than 70% recovered by 2 years
In total, 12,632 participants were included in the study. Participants who were aged 11 to 17 years between September 2020 and March 2021 were asked about their health 3, 6, 12, and 24 months after taking a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for COVID.
Among the participants, 943 had tested positive when first approached and completed surveys through 24 months. At 3 months, 233 met the research definition of long COVID. After 6 months, 135 continued to meet the definition, and by 12 months that number dropped to 94 participants.
Two years after initial infection, 68 of 943 participants (7.2%) still met the criteria for long COVID. That means 165 of the 233 young people (70.8%) who had long COVID 3 months after infection and provided information at every time point in the research had recovered. But 68 of the 233 (29.2%) did not.
“Our findings show that for teenagers who fulfilled our research definition of long Covid three months after a positive test for the Covid virus, the majority have recovered after two years,” said study author, Sir Terence Stephenson, PhD in a press release from University College London. “This is good news but we intend to do further research to try to better understand why 68 teenagers had not recovered.”
No differences related to vaccination status
Among all teens included in the study, those who reported COVID reinfections during the study period had the most symptoms through 24 months.
The most common symptoms reported were tiredness, trouble sleeping, shortness of breath, and headache. Symptom prevalence was generally higher in those with recurrent SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to those who never tested positive for the virus, the authors said.
Overall, 20% to 25% of all infection status groups reported three or more symptoms 24 months post-testing, with 10% to 25% experiencing five or more symptoms. Not all who reported symptoms, however, met the formal criteria for long COVID. In fact, five or more symptoms were reported by 14.2% of those who never tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, and by 20.8% of those with at least two infections.
We did not find that symptoms or their impact differed by vaccination status.
Older teens and females were most likely to meet formal definitions, the authors said. “We did not find that symptoms or their impact differed by vaccination status,” the authors wrote.
