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Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by children and young people in households and schools: A meta-analysis of population-based and contact-tracing studies

BACKGROUND: The role of children and young people (CYP) in transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in household and educational settings remains unclear. We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis of contact-tracing and population-based studies at low risk of bias. METHODS: We searched 4 electronic datab...

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Autores principales: Viner, Russell, Waddington, Claire, Mytton, Oliver, Booy, Robert, Cruz, Joana, Ward, Joseph, Ladhani, Shamez, Panovska-Griffiths, Jasmina, Bonell, Chris, Melendez-Torres, G.J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The British Infection Association. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8694793/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34953911
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.12.026
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author Viner, Russell
Waddington, Claire
Mytton, Oliver
Booy, Robert
Cruz, Joana
Ward, Joseph
Ladhani, Shamez
Panovska-Griffiths, Jasmina
Bonell, Chris
Melendez-Torres, G.J.
author_facet Viner, Russell
Waddington, Claire
Mytton, Oliver
Booy, Robert
Cruz, Joana
Ward, Joseph
Ladhani, Shamez
Panovska-Griffiths, Jasmina
Bonell, Chris
Melendez-Torres, G.J.
author_sort Viner, Russell
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The role of children and young people (CYP) in transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in household and educational settings remains unclear. We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis of contact-tracing and population-based studies at low risk of bias. METHODS: We searched 4 electronic databases on 28 July 2021 for contact-tracing studies and population-based studies informative about transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from 0 to 19 year olds in household or educational settings. We excluded studies at high risk of bias, including from under-ascertainment of asymptomatic infections. We undertook multilevel random effects meta-analyses of secondary attack rates (SAR: contact-tracing studies) and school infection prevalence, and used meta-regression to examine the impact of community SARS-CoV-2 incidence on school infection prevalence. FINDINGS: 4529 abstracts were reviewed, resulting in 37 included studies (16 contact-tracing; 19 population studies; 2 mixed studies). The pooled relative transmissibility of CYP compared with adults was 0.92 (0.68, 1.26) in adjusted household studies. The pooled SAR from CYP was lower (p = 0.002) in school studies 0.7% (0.2, 2.7) than household studies (7.6% (3.6, 15.9) . There was no difference in SAR from CYP to child or adult contacts. School population studies showed some evidence of clustering in classes within schools. School infection prevalence was associated with contemporary community 14-day incidence (OR 1.003 (1.001, 1.004), p<0.001). INTERPRETATION: We found no difference in transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from CYP compared with adults within household settings. SAR were markedly lower in school compared with household settings, suggesting that household transmission is more important than school transmission in this pandemic. School infection prevalence was associated with community infection incidence, supporting hypotheses that school infections broadly reflect community infections. These findings are important for guiding policy decisions on shielding, vaccination school and operations during the pandemic.
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spelling pubmed-86947932021-12-23 Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by children and young people in households and schools: A meta-analysis of population-based and contact-tracing studies Viner, Russell Waddington, Claire Mytton, Oliver Booy, Robert Cruz, Joana Ward, Joseph Ladhani, Shamez Panovska-Griffiths, Jasmina Bonell, Chris Melendez-Torres, G.J. J Infect Commentary BACKGROUND: The role of children and young people (CYP) in transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in household and educational settings remains unclear. We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis of contact-tracing and population-based studies at low risk of bias. METHODS: We searched 4 electronic databases on 28 July 2021 for contact-tracing studies and population-based studies informative about transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from 0 to 19 year olds in household or educational settings. We excluded studies at high risk of bias, including from under-ascertainment of asymptomatic infections. We undertook multilevel random effects meta-analyses of secondary attack rates (SAR: contact-tracing studies) and school infection prevalence, and used meta-regression to examine the impact of community SARS-CoV-2 incidence on school infection prevalence. FINDINGS: 4529 abstracts were reviewed, resulting in 37 included studies (16 contact-tracing; 19 population studies; 2 mixed studies). The pooled relative transmissibility of CYP compared with adults was 0.92 (0.68, 1.26) in adjusted household studies. The pooled SAR from CYP was lower (p = 0.002) in school studies 0.7% (0.2, 2.7) than household studies (7.6% (3.6, 15.9) . There was no difference in SAR from CYP to child or adult contacts. School population studies showed some evidence of clustering in classes within schools. School infection prevalence was associated with contemporary community 14-day incidence (OR 1.003 (1.001, 1.004), p<0.001). INTERPRETATION: We found no difference in transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from CYP compared with adults within household settings. SAR were markedly lower in school compared with household settings, suggesting that household transmission is more important than school transmission in this pandemic. School infection prevalence was associated with community infection incidence, supporting hypotheses that school infections broadly reflect community infections. These findings are important for guiding policy decisions on shielding, vaccination school and operations during the pandemic. The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The British Infection Association. 2022-03 2021-12-22 /pmc/articles/PMC8694793/ /pubmed/34953911 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.12.026 Text en © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The British Infection Association. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.
spellingShingle Commentary
Viner, Russell
Waddington, Claire
Mytton, Oliver
Booy, Robert
Cruz, Joana
Ward, Joseph
Ladhani, Shamez
Panovska-Griffiths, Jasmina
Bonell, Chris
Melendez-Torres, G.J.
Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by children and young people in households and schools: A meta-analysis of population-based and contact-tracing studies
title Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by children and young people in households and schools: A meta-analysis of population-based and contact-tracing studies
title_full Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by children and young people in households and schools: A meta-analysis of population-based and contact-tracing studies
title_fullStr Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by children and young people in households and schools: A meta-analysis of population-based and contact-tracing studies
title_full_unstemmed Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by children and young people in households and schools: A meta-analysis of population-based and contact-tracing studies
title_short Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by children and young people in households and schools: A meta-analysis of population-based and contact-tracing studies
title_sort transmission of sars-cov-2 by children and young people in households and schools: a meta-analysis of population-based and contact-tracing studies
topic Commentary
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8694793/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34953911
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.12.026
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