Objectives
To estimate the prevalence of long COVID symptoms in children with and without a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection and to evaluate factors associated with long COVID.
Design
A nationwide cross-sectional study.
Setting
Primary care.
Participants
3240 parents of children aged 5–18 with and without SARS-CoV-2 infection completed an online questionnaire (11.9% response rate); 1148 and 2092 with/without a history of infection, respectively.
Primary and secondary outcome measures
Primary outcome was the prevalence of long COVID symptoms in children with/without a history of infection. Secondary outcomes were the factors associated with the presence of long COVID symptoms and with failure to return to baseline health status in children with a history of infection including gender, age, time from illness, symptomatic illness and vaccine status.
Results
Most long COVID symptoms were more prevalent in children with a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection: headaches (211 (18.4%) vs 114 (5.4%), p