TY - JOUR
AU - Shi, Ting
AU - Pan, Jiafeng
AU - Moore, Emily
AU - Katikireddi, Srinivasa Vittal
AU - Docherty, Annemarie B.
AU - Fenton, Lynda
AU - McCowan, Colin
AU - Agrawal, Utkarsh
AU - Kerr, Steven
AU - Shah, Syed Ahmar
AU - Stock, Sarah J.
AU - Simpson, Colin R.
AU - Robertson, Chris
AU - Sheikh, Aziz
PY - 2022
DA - September
TI - Risk of COVID-19 hospitalizations among school-aged children in Scotland: a national incident cohort study
JO - Journal of Global Health
VL - 12
DO - https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05044
AB - BackgroundThere is considerable policy, clinical and public interest about whether children should be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 and, if so, which children should be prioritised (particularly if vaccine resources are limited). To inform such deliberations, we sought to identify children and young people at highest risk of hospitalization from COVID-19.MethodsWe used the Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II) platform to undertake a national incident cohort analysis to investigate the risk of hospitalization among 5-17 years old living in Scotland in risk groups defined by the living risk prediction algorithm (QCOVID). A Cox proportional hazard model was used to derive hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between risk groups and COVID-19 hospital admission. Adjustments were made for age, sex, socioeconomic status, co-morbidity, and prior hospitalization.ResultsBetween March 1, 2020 and November 22, 2021, there were 146 183 (19.4% of all 752 867 children in Scotland) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections among 5-17 years old. Of those with confirmed infection, 973 (0.7%) were admitted to hospital with COVID-19. The rate of COVID-19 hospitalization was higher in those within each QCOVID risk group compared to those without the condition. Similar results were found in age stratified analyses (5-11 and 12-17 years old). Risk groups associated with an increased risk of COVID-19 hospital admission, included (adjusted HR, 95% CIs): sickle cell disease 14.35 (8.48-24.28), chronic kidney disease 11.34 (4.61-27.87), blood cancer 6.32 (3.24-12.35), rare pulmonary diseases 5.04 (2.58-9.86), type 2 diabetes 3.04 (1.34-6.92), epilepsy 2.54 (1.69-3.81), type 1 diabetes 2.48 (1.47-4.16), Down syndrome 2.45 (0.96-6.25), cerebral palsy 2.37 (1.26-4.47), severe mental illness 1.43 (0.63-3.24), fracture 1.41 (1.02-1.95), congenital heart disease 1.35 (0.82-2.23), asthma 1.28 (1.06-1.55), and learning disability (excluding Down syndrome) 1.08 (0.82-1.42), when compared to those without these conditions. Although our Cox models were adjusted for a number of potential confounders, residual confounding remains a possibility.ConclusionsIn this national study, we observed an increased risk of COVID-19 hospital admissions among school-aged children with specific underlying long-term health conditions compared with children without these conditions.
PB - International Society of Global Health
UR - http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/276851/
KW - Coronavirus (COVID-19)
KW - Children, young people and families
ER