A panoramic view of hospitalized young children in the metropolitan area of the valley of Mexico during COVID-19

Gerardo R Padilla-Rivas; Michelle G Santoyo-Suarez; Diego Francisco Benitez-Chao; Kame Galan-Huerta; Hector Franco Villareal; Elsa N Garza-Treviño; Jose Francisco Islas

doi:10.1016/j.ijregi.2023.10.004

A panoramic view of hospitalized young children in the metropolitan area of the valley of Mexico during COVID-19

IJID Reg. 2023 Oct 12:9:72-79. doi: 10.1016/j.ijregi.2023.10.004. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Authors

Gerardo R Padilla-Rivas¹, Michelle G Santoyo-Suarez¹, Diego Francisco Benitez-Chao¹, Kame Galan-Huerta¹, Hector Franco Villareal², Elsa N Garza-Treviño¹, Jose Francisco Islas¹

Affiliations

¹ Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Facultad de Medicina, Departamento de Bioquímica y Medicina Molecular, Dr. Eduardo Aguirre Pequeño, Monterrey, México.
² Althian Clinical Research, Capitán Aguilar Sur 669, Monterrey, México.

Abstract

Objectives: This work provides an overview of young children's (aged 0-9) infectious diseases epidemiology, by exploring the link between various comorbid conditions, COVID-19, and death rate.

Methods: Public data on hospitalized young children was obtained from national databases of the Mexican health care system from 2020-2022. Data included age, year of entry, gender, the time between admission to death (hospitalization time), date of death, comorbidities, and admissions to the intensive care unit. Children were separated into age groups and frequencies were calculated. Binary regression models were developed to determine the correlation of comorbidities and COVID-19 to death as calculated by odds ratios (OR).

Results: From 2020-2022, there were 11,815 hospitalizations among young children, of which 15.98% were due to COVID-19, 2.55% of hospitalizations resulted in fatalities from which 32.45% of deaths were COVID-19 related. The highest case-calculated fatality ratio of COVID-19 infected young children was estimated at 7.04% by early 2020, but dropped to 2.11% by the end of the second semester of 2022. The most frequent comorbidities associated with their hospitalization and death for the general population were intubation (OR: 17.967), pneumonia (OR: 2.263), diabetes (OR: 7.301), cardiovascular diseases (OR: 1.528) and COVID-19 (OR: 261). For the COVID-19-positive group, the most impactful comorbidities were intubation (OR: 20.232), pneumonia (OR: 3.057), and diabetes (OR: 12.824).

Conclusion: Children's hospitalizations and deaths were common during the pandemic; wherein major comorbidities played an important role. Therefore, effective comorbidity management and vaccination programs are essential to reduce hospitalizations and deaths among young children.

Keywords: COVID-19 comorbidities; COVID-19 death; Children COVID-19; Mexico COVID-19; Mexico hospitalizations.