Children face elevated kidney, heart, and gut risks for years after COVID infection
Findings from researchers at Penn Medicine show elevated risks for chronic organ disease among children, and reveal some racial differences in long COVID risks.
2 min. read
Long COVID can result in increased risk for a variety of serious health problems for young people, including those affecting the kidney, gut, and cardiovascular system, according to a group of new studies led by investigators at the Perelman School of Medicine.
“While most public attention has focused on the acute phase of COVID-19, our findings reveal children face significant long-term health risks that clinicians need to monitor,” says senior author Yong Chen, a professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology.
Young patients with positive SARS-CoV-2 tests had a 17% higher risk of developing chronic kidney disease tested at stage 2 or higher, indicating mild kidney damage that still functioned well, and 35% higher risk of chronic kidney disease at stage 3 or higher, meaning there is mild to severe damage impacting kidney function, from one month to two years after infection.
Published inJAMA Network Open, the analysis covered electronic health records for 1,900,146 individuals under the age of 21. The researchers compared kidney-related outcomes in the post-acute phase in those who had positive SARS-CoV-2 tests to outcomes in individuals who had negative tests and no documented SARS-CoV-2 infection during the 2020-23 study period.
Patients with pre-existing chronic kidney disease who had a positive SARS-CoV-2 test had a 15% higher risk of developing any of several other kidney-related adverse outcomes, including a major decline in kidney filtration rate, dialysis, or kidney transplant. Children and adolescents who experienced a documented kidney injury during the acute phase of infection also had an elevated risk of adverse kidney outcomes from three to six months after infection, compared to those with no acute kidney injury.
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