ICU Admission, Invasive Mechanical Ventilation, and Mortality among Children and Adolescents Hospitalized for COVID-19 in a Private Healthcare System

AIM: The COVID-19 pandemic devastated healthcare around the world. Data about the COVID-19 outcomes among young people are still scarce. We aim to identify factors associated with the composite outcome among children and adolescents hospitalized due to COVID-19. METHODS: We performed a search in the database of a large Brazilian private healthcare system. Insured people aged 21 years or younger who were hospitalized due to COVID-19 from Feb/28th/2020 to Nov/1st/2021 were included. The primary endpoint was the composite outcome consisting of ICU admission, need for invasive mechanical ventilation, or death. RESULTS: We evaluated 199 patients who had an index hospitalization due to COVID-19. The median monthly rate of index hospitalization was 2.7 (interquartile range [IQR], 1.6-3.9) per 100,000 clients aged 21 years or less. The median age of the patients was 4.5 years (IQR, 1.4-14.1). At the index hospitalization, the composite outcome rate was 26.6%. The composite outcome was associated with all the previous coexisting morbidities evaluated. The median follow-up was 249.0 days (IQR, 152.0-438.5). There were 27 readmissions (16 patients) within 30 days after the discharge. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, hospitalized children and adolescents had a composite outcome rate of 26.6% at the index hospitalization. Having previous chronic morbidity was associated with the composite.