13 Comorbid Conditions With COVID-19 in Hospitalized Pediatric Patients: A Multi-Center Analysis

Background: Although the physical morbidity and mortality attributable to SARS-CoV-2 has predominantly affected adults, children remain at risk for serious complications. There has been substantial research regarding comorbid conditions, such as obesity and diabetes, and COVID-19 outcomes in adults, yet much is still unknown in the pediatric population. Study Objective: This study sought to examine comorbid conditions as risk factors associated with severe outcomes among pediatric COVID-19 patients. Methods: In this cross-sectional retrospective study we used data mining approaches on the Cerner multicenter dataset to retrieve an extensive list of comorbidities including pre-existing and concurrent conditions in hospitalized patients with SARS-CoV-2 (> 29 days and 5 years were at higher odds of complication and those odds increased with age, whereas younger patients with acute kidney failure were more at risk. The highest risk factor for complication was found to be ileus, OR=11.9. Of 40 patients with ileus, 3 died and 26 required mechanical ventilation. Conclusions: Risk factors for complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection encompass a variety of conditions including obesity, epilepsy, PDA, bacterial pneumonia, sepsis, acute kidney failure, and ileus. Further studies are needed to explore these associations which may help elucidate why certain children suffer increased complications as well as inform treatment decisions.