Abstract Introduction/Rationale The world was significantly disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome caused by the highly infectious coronavirus, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2).1,2 This significantly impacted global health, with over 280 million infections and 5.4 million deaths by the end of 2021. Adults experienced severe disease and significant morbidity, while in children was largely asymptomatic or mildly affected. 3 There are concerns arising from the emergence of new or the persistence of COVID-19 symptoms beyond 12 weeks and this has prompted investigations into its potential impacts on lung function and lung health. This study aimed to determine long COVID-19 symptoms, factors associated with abnormality and the spirometric abnormalities in children previously treated for COVID-19 at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), North-Central Nigeria. Methods This is a retrospective cohort study of 19 children aged 6 - 18 years with Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) confirmed COVID-19 between September 2020 and August 2022. The research participants were identified using hospital records and contacted through phone calls had follow-up spirometry per ATS/ERS 2019 guidelines and GLI 2012 reference values. Results Of 137 children treated, 68 met eligibility criteria, and 19 (27.9%) consented for the study. The participants were mostly male (68.4%) and only 2 were admitted for COVID-19. All children had SPO2 92%, none had symptoms consistent with long COVID-19 and only 2 (10.5%) participants had obstructive spirometric pattern: 1 had Forced Expiratory Volume in one second to Forced Vital Capacity ratio (FEV1/ FVC) 80% with negative bronchodilator responsiveness test and the other had Forced Expiratory Flow rate (FEF25-75) 65% that normalized post-bronchodilator. No restrictive or mixed patterns were observed while sociodemographic factors, nutritional status, and medication type did not significantly influence spirometric outcomes (p 0.05). The study reveals nonexistence of symptoms of long COVID-19 and the low prevalence of post-COVID-19 spirometric abnormalities in similar Nigerian studies. The findings are consistent with global reports of none or milder long COVID-19 manifestations in children compared to adults. The small sample size and limited participation in this study underscore the need for larger prospective studies to validate these observations. In conclusion, continuous research and establishing baseline lung function test indices in post-COVID-19 paediatric population is essential for early interventions in cases of emerging respiratory. This abstract is funded by: none
Yiltok et al. (Fri,) studied this question.