COVID-19 in children and adolescents in Europe: a multinational, multicentre cohort study
Florian Götzinger, MD *
Begoña Santiago-García, PhD *
Prof Antoni Noguera-Julián, PhD
Miguel Lanaspa, PhD
Laura Lancella, PhD
Francesca I Calò Carducci, PhD
Published:June 25, 2020DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(20)30177-2
Summary
Background
To date, few data on paediatric COVID-19 have been published, and most reports originate from China. This study aimed to capture key data on children and adolescents with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection across Europe to inform physicians and health-care service planning during the ongoing pandemic.
Methods
This multicentre cohort study involved 82 participating health-care institutions across 25 European countries, using a well established research network—the Paediatric Tuberculosis Network European Trials Group (ptbnet)—that mainly comprises paediatric infectious diseases specialists and paediatric pulmonologists. We included all individuals aged 18 years or younger with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, detected at any anatomical site by RT-PCR, between April 1 and April 24, 2020, during the initial peak of the European COVID-19 pandemic. We explored factors associated with need for intensive care unit (ICU) admission and initiation of drug treatment for COVID-19 using univariable analysis, and applied multivariable logistic regression with backwards stepwise analysis to further explore those factors significantly associated with ICU admission.
