Clinical epidemiology of community-acquired pneumonia in children before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and independent risk factors analysis for severe community-acquired pneumonia.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic may have created an 'immunity debt', altering the epidemiology and aetiology of paediatric community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). However, multi-centre data on these changes and contemporary risk factors for severe CAP remain limited. We therefore aimed to analyse clinical characteristics and pathogen composition of CAP in children before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and to identify independent risk factors associated with severe CAP.

Methods

We collected clinical data from paediatric inpatients diagnosed with CAP at 13 hospitals in 13 provinces of China between August and October 2018 2018 (before the COVID-19 pandemic), 2020 (during the pandemic), and 2023 (after the pandemic). We used a multivariate COX regression model to identi

SUBMITTER: Li X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12448372 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature