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. Conclusions 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.