Kosin Med J.  2024 Jun;39(2):99-111. 10.7180/kmj.24.106.

Clinical features of coronavirus disease 2019 in Korean pediatric patients: a single-center retrospective study

• Jeong JE
• Chung HL
• Kim YH
• Lee N
• Kim Y
• Jang YY

• KMID: 2556807
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.7180/kmj.24.106

Abstract

Background
To address the public’s fear of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), understanding the clinical features of the disease is essential. However, research on the clinical features of COVID-19, including illness duration and post-acute COVID-19, in Korean pediatric patients has been limited. Therefore, this study investigated the clinical features of COVID-19 based on the medical records of pediatric patients with a history of COVID-19 who visited a single center.
Methods
In total, 311 patients were included in this study. The presence and duration of 19 symptoms were examined. Additionally, clinical features were investigated by dividing the patients into different age ranges. Patients aged 6 and above were further categorized according to the presence of asthma, while adolescent patients were divided into vaccinated and unvaccinated groups.
Results
Fever and cough were the most common symptoms. The mean illness duration was 2–4 days. Only 3.5% of the patients were asymptomatic. Post-acute COVID-19 was observed in 13.2% of the patients. The incidence of most symptoms tended to increase with age. Post-acute COVID-19 was observed more frequently in patients with asthma than in those without asthma. Vaccinated patients experienced less fever, vomiting, and fatigue than unvaccinated patients.
Conclusions
Our data suggest that most patients had mild disease lasting less than a week, and the clinical course may differ depending on the presence of asthma. The findings also indicate that vaccination may alleviate the symptoms of COVID-19 in breakthrough infections.

Keyword

Adolescent; Child; COVID-19; Korea; Signs and symptoms

Figure

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  Fig. 1. Proportion of patients with post-acute coronavirus disease 2019 symptoms. If a patient had multiple symptoms, multiple variables corresponding to the symptoms were selected.

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  Fig. 2. Clinical features by age category: (A) fever, (B) cough, (C) rhinorrhea, (D) nasal stuffiness, (E) dyspnea, (F) chest discomfort, (G) chest pain, (H) myalgia, (I) headache, (J) dizziness, (K) sore eyes, (L) sore throat, (M) nausea, (N) vomiting, (O) abdominal pain, (P) diarrhea, (Q) loss of smell, (R) loss of taste, (S) fatigue, (T) asymptomatic, and (U) post-acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). *p<0.008; **p<0.017.

Reference

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