{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,11]],"date-time":"2026-07-11T17:58:38Z","timestamp":1783792718530,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"BMJ","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,10]],"date-time":"2022-03-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1646870400000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":9,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["bmj.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["BMJ Open"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2022,3]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Objective<\/jats:title><jats:p>To describe the risk factors, clinical profile and outcomes of COVID-19 in the paediatric population.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Design<\/jats:title><jats:p>Multicentre, retrospective observational study.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Setting<\/jats:title><jats:p>Four tertiary hospitals in Saudi Arabia.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Patients<\/jats:title><jats:p>We recruited 390 paediatric patients aged 0\u201318 years who presented from March to December 2020 and tested positive for COVID-19 on PCR.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Main outcome measures<\/jats:title><jats:p>We retrospectively analysed medical records for sociodemographics, health indicators, clinical presentations, laboratory findings, clinical complications, and outcomes.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>The mean participant age was 5.66\u00b14.90 years, and the mean hospital stay was 2.17\u00b13.48\u2009days. Forty patients, mostly school-aged children (16, 40.00%; p=0.005) and children with comorbidities (25, 62.50%; p&lt;0.001), received more than just supportive care. Complications were seen in 15 (3.9%) patients, bacterial infection being the most common (6, 40.00%). Patients presented with dyspnoea (OR 6.89; 95% CI 2.89 to 20.72), abnormal chest radiographs (OR 6.11; 95%\u2009CI 1.26 to 29.38), lethargy (OR 9.04; 95%\u2009CI 2.91 to 28.06) and elevated ferritin (OR 14.21; 95%\u2009CI 4.18 to 48.37) and D-dimer (OR 48.40; 95%\u2009CI 14.32 to 163.62), with higher odds of developing complications. The odds of paediatric intensive care unit (ICU) admission were higher for patients with dyspnoea (adjusted OR 4.66; 95%\u2009CI 1.24 to 17.50) and elevated white blood cell count (adjusted OR 3.54; 95%\u2009CI 1.02 to 12.30).<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title><jats:p>COVID-19 complications were limited among our patients. However, dyspnoea, abnormal chest radiographs, lethargy and elevated ferritin and D-dimer were associated with an increased risk of complications. Dyspnoea, leucocytosis, comorbidities and abnormal chest radiographs at presentation increased the risk of ICU admission.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjopen-2021-053722","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,11]],"date-time":"2022-03-11T16:41:25Z","timestamp":1647016885000},"page":"e053722","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/crossmarkpolicy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Clinical profile, risk factors and outcomes of pediatric COVID-19: a retrospective cohort multicentre study in Saudi Arabia"],"prefix":"10.1136","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Waleed H","family":"Albuali","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Amal A","family":"AlGhamdi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shaikha J","family":"Aldossary","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Saleh A","family":"AlHarbi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sami I","family":"Al Majed","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ahmed","family":"Alenizi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mohammad H","family":"Al-Qahtani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Amer A","family":"Lardhi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shams A","family":"Al-Turki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Abdulaziz S","family":"AlSanea","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Dalal K","family":"Bubshait","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sumayyah A","family":"Kobeisy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Noor H","family":"Herzallah","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wejdan A","family":"Alqarni","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Abeer H","family":"AlHarbi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hamad W","family":"Albuali","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bader J","family":"Aldossary","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3411-819X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Faisal O","family":"AlQurashi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Abdullah A","family":"Yousef","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"239","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,3,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"2023030803131381000_12.3.e053722.1","unstructured":"World Health Organization . 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