Objective: To describe COVID-19 illness characteristics, risk factors, and SARS-CoV-2 serostatus by variant time period in a large community-based pediatric sample.
Design: Data were collected prospectively over four timepoints between October 2020 and November 2022 from a population-based cohort ages 5 to 19 years old.
Setting: State of Texas, USA.
Participants: Participants ages 5 to 19 years were recruited from large pediatric healthcare systems, Federally Qualified Healthcare Centers, urban and rural clinical practices, health insurance providers, and a social media campaign.
Exposure: SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Main outcome(s) and measure(s): SARS-CoV-2 antibody status was assessed by the Roche Elecsys® Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Immunoassay for detection of antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein (Roche N-test). Self-reported antigen or PCR COVID-19 test results and symptom status were also collected.
Results: Over half (57.2%) of the sample (N = 3911) was antibody positive. Symptomatic infection increased over time from 47.09% during the pre-Delta variant time period, to 76.95% during Delta, to 84.73% during Omicron, and to 94.79% during the Omicron BA.2. Those who were not vaccinated were more likely (OR 1.71, 95% CI 1.47, 2.00) to be infected versus those fully vaccinated.
Conclusions: Results show an increase in symptomatic COVID-19 infection among non-hospitalized children with each progressive variant over the past two years. Findings here support the public health guidance that eligible children should remain up to date with COVID-19 vaccinations.
Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; adolescents; children; symptoms.