COVID-19 Pandemic: A comparison of adult and pediatric populations

Abstract

Aim:  Couple of pneumonia cases were reported in a short period in Wuhan, China. The cases were revealed to be associated with a different coronavirus type was named SARS-CoV-2 and the disease was identified as Covid-19.  It is known that the disease occurs in all age groups. We aimed to evaluate the differences in clinical and laboratory features between adult and pediatric patients.

Method: The study is a retrospective cross-sectional study and consists of 206 patients with a definitive diagnosis of Covid-19 confirmed by a positive real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing for SARS-CoV-2. They hospitalized in health institutions connected to City Health Administrative of Bolu, Turkey between 11.03.2020 and 19.04.2020. The number of the pediatric patients (0-17 age group) was 106, that of the adult patients (18 and above age group) was 100. Data concerning the patients consisted of age, symptoms, laboratory parameters such as hemogram, biochemistry, coagulation.

Results: The mean values of platelet (PLT), platocrit (PCT), percentage of monocytes (MONO %) and MONO in the “0-17” age group were found to be significantly higher than the mean values in the “18 and above” age group. The hemoglobin (HGB) mean value of the “0-17” age group was significantly lower than that of the “18 and above” age group. The mean C - reactive protein (CRP) value of the “0-17” age group (4.55; min: 1.20 – max: 11.80) was significantly lower than that of the “18 and above” age group (5.35; min 1.25- max: 19.77) with no statistically significance. In pediatric group, the most common symptoms were other symptoms like diarrhea, vomiting and joint pain whereas the adult patients had fever and cough often with statistically significant.

Conclusion: Clinical findings and laboratory abnormalities in Covid-19 are less common in children. Although it seems that Covid-19 is less symptomatic in children, they are also affected by the disease. Performing RT-PCR test based on the contact history of the children may help to minimize morbidity with an early diagnosis. Multicenter studies with more numbers of patients should be performed.