{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T06:04:04Z","timestamp":1790661844141,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":29,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790640000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Pediatr."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The epidemiology of pediatric acute respiratory infections (ARIs) changed substantially during the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic, largely because of school closures, masking, reduced travel, and other non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). However, hospital-based data from the restriction period remain useful for describing pathogen detection patterns, clinical severity, and markers of adverse clinical course.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      We conducted a retrospective hospital-based study of 62 children aged &amp;lt;18 years who were evaluated for ARI symptoms and underwent real-time fluorescent quantitative nucleic acid testing for common respiratory pathogens, including respiratory viruses and\n                      <jats:italic>Mycoplasma pneumoniae<\/jats:italic>\n                      . Demographic, clinical, laboratory, treatment, severity, and outcome variables were extracted from medical records. Continuous variables were summarized using medians and ranges, and group comparisons used non-parametric tests. Given the small sample size and sparse severe-outcome events, the study was not powered to detect small effect sizes, and regression findings were interpreted conservatively as hypothesis-generating rather than confirmatory.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      The median age was 9 years (range, 1\u201317), and 33 patients (53.2%) were female. Most children had mild disease (37\/62, 59.7%); 19 (30.6%) had moderate disease and 6 (9.7%) had severe disease. Intensive care unit (ICU) admission was recorded in 6 patients (9.7%), and mechanical ventilatory or noninvasive respiratory support in 9 (14.5%). Fever (43.5%) and cough (22.6%) were the most frequent presenting symptoms. Median oxygen saturation was 94.7% (range, 87.2\u201397.8). Respiratory virus detection was documented in 15 children (24.2%). Human rhinovirus was detected in 15 children (24.2%), human bocavirus in 9 (14.5%), and\n                      <jats:italic>Mycoplasma pneumoniae<\/jats:italic>\n                      in 10 (16.1%); co-detection was recorded in 14 children (22.6%). Lower SpO2 and longer symptom duration differed significantly across severity categories (both\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u2009&amp;lt;\u20090.001). In exploratory logistic regression, each additional day of symptoms was associated with higher odds of hospital admission\/continued inpatient management [odds ratio [OR], 1.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03\u20131.93;\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u2009=\u20090.022]. Sex was not significantly associated with clinical severity or laboratory parameters.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>In this small hospital-based pediatric ARI cohort during the COVID-19 restriction period, severe disease was uncommon, and oxygen saturation and symptom duration were the most clinically coherent markers of greater severity. The observed pathogen detection pattern is compatible with pandemic-era disruption of respiratory pathogen circulation, but causal conclusions about NPIs require larger denominator-based studies with pre-pandemic and post-restriction comparison groups.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fped.2026.1893727","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T05:46:14Z","timestamp":1790660774000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Clinical characteristics, pathogen detection, and severity markers among children with acute respiratory infections during the COVID-19 restriction period: a retrospective hospital-based study"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Qiuxiang","family":"Xu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatric Emergency, Shanxi Provincial Children's Hospital","place":["Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, 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