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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Children and Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1377745

Impact of Omicron Infection on Childhood Health: The Beijing Long-COVID Study

Provisionally accepted
Bo Zhou Bo Zhou 1Minjun Li Minjun Li 2Qi Xu Qi Xu 2Shaoli Li Shaoli Li 2Jianhong Wang Jianhong Wang 2Liu Junting Liu Junting 3Ting Zhang Ting Zhang 3Xia Qu Xia Qu 2Xi Wang Xi Wang 2Lili Zhang Lili Zhang 2Xiaoli Liu Xiaoli Liu 2Jialu Gu Jialu Gu 2Lijun Zhou Lijun Zhou 2Fangfang Chen Fangfang Chen 3Xin'Nan Zong Xin'Nan Zong 3Wenquan Niu Wenquan Niu 3Lin Wang Lin Wang 4*
  • 1 Department Of Child Health Care, Children's Hospital of Capital Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
  • 2 Children's Hospital of Capital Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
  • 3 Capital Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
  • 4 Department Of Child Health Care, Capital Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing, China

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

    Purpose: The aim of this prospective study was to assess the dynamic changes of persisting symptoms among children aged 6-18 years during 1-2 months after the Omicron infection based on the modified SBQ-LC in the Tongzhou cohort, Beijing. Methods: This study includes 4 serial surveys performed within January 7-9, January 14-16, January 21-23 and February 12-14 in 2023, respectively. The prediction of age and survey for eight domains in the Rasch 0-100 linear score was undertaken by generalized additive mixed model. Results: Total 1536 children (median age: 13 years, boys: 49.9%) had completed questionnaires across 4 surveys. Information on 51 symptoms was collected, with each scored on a 4-point rating scale. Generally, the distribution of age with all domains followed the N-shaped geometry, and that of survey followed the inverse J-shaped geometry. The Rasch linear score hit the lowest level among children aged 6-8 years, and reached the peak among children aged 12-13 years. The scores of all domains sharply declined from the first to the third survey, and remained stable between the third and the fourth survey. At the fourth survey, 95.05% and 51.37% children still had one or more problems relating to breathing and mental health, respectively, and the percentage of rest six domains was reduced to less than 20%. Conclusions: Our findings indicate the multifaceted impact of Omicron infection on childhood health, especially among children aged 12-13 years. Moreover, breathing and mental health related problems still persisted during 1-to-2-month Omicron infection period.

    Keywords: Omicron infection, Long Covid, Children, Symptom Burden Questionnaire, prospective cohort

    Received: 28 Jan 2024; Accepted: 05 Feb 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Zhou, Li, Xu, Li, Wang, Junting, Zhang, Qu, Wang, Zhang, Liu, Gu, Zhou, Chen, Zong, Niu and Wang. 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: Lin Wang, Department Of Child Health Care, Capital Institute of Pediatrics, Beijing, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.