Vaccination Key to Preventing COVID-19 Hospitalizations Among Children
A study found that children aged 6 months or younger who are not eligible for vaccination were at the highest risk for hospitalization due to SARS-CoV-2.
Younger children who are not eligible for vaccination are at a high risk for hospitalization due to COVID-19, according to new study data published in the journal Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses.1 The study also found older children had a lower risk for hospitalization, but needed a higher level of care when they were hospitalized.
Vaccination Key to Preventing COVID-19 Hospitalizations Among Children / pingpao - stock.adobe.com
Although the public health emergency ended in May 2023, COVID-19 remains a threat due to new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that continue to emerge. This is why prevention and treatment measures, such as vaccination, are still important to keep individuals safe. Among children, COVID-19 vaccines have proven to protect from severe illness but many have still not been inoculated against the disease.2
READ MORE: COVID-19 Associated with Increased Risk of Cardiovascular Events
“Although several studies have shown that COVID-19 vaccines are effective in preventing infection and severe disease among children, vaccine coverage among children has been suboptimal compared to adults,” the authors wrote. “According to a recent study, approximately half of children aged 18 years [or younger] in the United States who are eligible for vaccination received at least 1 dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and only 44.2% completed their primary vaccination series.”
A team of investigators from the Vaccine Study Center at Kaiser Permanente Northern California conducted a retrospective cohort study to determine the incidence and risk factors associated with COVID-19 hospitalization among unvaccinated children in the context of widespread vaccine availability. Data for the study was gathered from Kaiser Permanente clinical databases, which include comprehensive information about diagnoses, prescriptions, laboratory tests, and sociodemographic data.
The study cohort included 1,107,799 patients under 18 years of age who were followed from March 1, 2020, until the earliest occurrence of 1 of the following: hospitalization for COVID-19, disenrollment from Kaiser Permanente, reached 18 years of age, received a COVID-19 vaccine, death, or the end of the study, which occurred on December 31, 2022. The main study outcome was hospitalization with a SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The study found that 899 patients with a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test were hospitalized during the study period, with 423 being hospitalized due to COVID-19 and 476 being incidental cases. Of the hospitalized patients, 103 were 6 months of age of younger, 40 were 6 to 11 months, 139 were between 1 and younger than 5 years, 80 were between 5 and younger than 12 years, and 61 were between 12 and younger than 18 years. Hospitalization incidence increased with each new SARS-CoV-2 variant for all ages, with children aged 6 months or younger having the highest incidence.
Of the hospitalized patients, 86 were admitted to an ICU, with the highest proportion being among children aged between 12 to younger than 18 years. Among patients admitted to the ICU, 91.8% had no comorbidities and 18.6% required mechanical ventilation.
Study limitations include that the study results do not apply to the vaccinated population, that multiple hospitalizations were not assessed, too few cases to fully adjust the analysis beyond age, a limited set of comorbidities, and race/ethnicity, and that the incidence of hospitalization for maternal COVID-19 vaccination status was not adjusted for in children less than 6 months of age.
“Contrary to popular belief that only children with comorbidities are at risk of severe COVID-19, our data suggest that any child can be at risk of severe disease requiring intensive care because the proportion of comorbidities among the children admitted to an ICU was small and most children admitted to an ICU had no comorbidities,” the authors wrote. “Although the World Health Organization recommends a risk based COVID-19 vaccination for children, our results suggest that all children can benefit from vaccination to reduce their risk of hospitalization.”
READ MORE: COVID-19 Resource Center
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