Impact of Comorbidities on Outcome in Children With COVID-19 at a Tertiary Care Pediatric Hospital

OBJECTIVE: To study the various comorbidities and their impact on outcome of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infected children. METHODOLOGY: Review of medical records of 120 children (58.4% males), aged 1 month to 18 years, admitted between 1 March and 31 December, 2020 with at least one positive RT-PCR test for SARS-CoV-2. Clinical and demographic variables were compared between children with and without co-morbidities. RESULTS: 62 (51.7%) children had comorbidities. The most common comorbidity was tuberculosis (32.3%) followed by other infections (27.4%) and hematological (19.4%) conditions. Fever (89.2%) was the most common clinical feature followed by respiratory (52.5%) and gastrointestinal (32.5%) manifestations. There was no significant difference in the severity of COVID illness, length of hospital stay and adverse outcomes (ventilation and mortality) among children with and without comorbidities. CONCLUSION: The presence of a comorbid illness in pediatric inpatients with COVID-19 did not impact the illness severity, length of hospitalization, ventilation requirement and mortality.