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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Oral. Health
Sec. Oral Epidemiology
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/froh.2024.1458368

The relationship between upper airway parameters and covid-19 symptom severity in adolescents Upper airway morphology affects COVID-19 symptom severity in adolescents

Provisionally accepted
Tianjing Du Tianjing Du 1*Juan Wang Juan Wang 1*Peter Mei Peter Mei 2Dongning Li Dongning Li 1*Jiamin Zhao Jiamin Zhao 1*Jianglin Zhou Jianglin Zhou 1*Jun Wang Jun Wang 3*Yifei Xu Yifei Xu 4*Kun Qi Kun Qi 1*
  • 1 Hospital of Stomatology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
  • 2 University of Otago, Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand
  • 3 Shaanxi Provincial People's Hospital, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China
  • 4 School of Stomatology, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Abstract Background: COVID-19 is a respiratory disease, and its symptoms may be affected by the upper airways of adolescents. Objective: To investigate the effect of parameters of adolescents’ upper airways on COVID-19 symptom severity. Methods: This retrospective study was performed from January to March 2022 at the Hospital of Stomatology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China. The inclusion criteria were patients who started orthodontic treatment for the first time, who experienced initial onset of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, and who received two intramuscular doses of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Participants’ COVID-19 symptom severity was recorded by a questionnaire including seven different dimensions. The three-dimensional parameters of the upper airway were obtained by cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and measured by Dolphin Imaging software by blinded orthodontic investigators. The correlation between COVID-19 symptom severity and three-dimensional upper airway parameters was analyzed. Results: 64 males (46.4%) and 74 females (53.6%) were included in the study, with the median age of 9.5 years. The severity scores of dimension 3 (headache, muscle pain, fatigue, shortness of breath, diarrhea and smell affects) showed a linear relationship with age. Spearman's rank correlation showed that the severity score of dimension 1 (nasal symptoms) was negatively correlated with nasal volume (r=-0.325). The severity score of dimension 6was negatively correlated with the height of the nasopharynx (r=-0.325) and positively correlated with the ratio of the horizontal-to-vertical direction of the oropharynx (r=0.385). Conclusions and Relevance: The severity of some COVID-19 symptoms was alleviated with the increase of age. Nasal and throat pain and dry mouth was negatively correlated with nasal volume and nasopharyngeal height. The severity of COVID-19 symptoms among individuals is relavant to age and upper airway.

    Keywords: COVID-19, upper airway, questionnaire, CBCT, Symptom Assessment, Orthodontic treatment, Adenoidectomy

    Received: 02 Jul 2024; Accepted: 17 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Du, Wang, Mei, Li, Zhao, Zhou, Wang, Xu and Qi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Tianjing Du, Hospital of Stomatology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
    Juan Wang, Hospital of Stomatology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
    Dongning Li, Hospital of Stomatology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
    Jiamin Zhao, Hospital of Stomatology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
    Jianglin Zhou, Hospital of Stomatology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
    Jun Wang, Shaanxi Provincial People's Hospital, Xi'an, 710068, Shaanxi Province, China
    Yifei Xu, School of Stomatology, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China
    Kun Qi, Hospital of Stomatology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China

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