Most young people who were confirmed to have long Covid three months after a positive test recover within two years, the largest study of its kind has found.
The Children and young people with Long Covid (CLoCK) study found that 70 per cent of children aged between 11 and 17 had recovered within a 24-month period.
Researchers at University College London (UCL) asked more than 12,600 young people about their health three, six, 12 and 24 months after taking a PCR test for Covid between September 2020 and March 2021. They were also asked to recall their symptoms at the time of taking the test.
For the study, the team defined long Covid as a person having more than one symptom, such as tiredness, trouble sleeping or headaches, alongside problems with either mobility, self-care, doing usual activities, pain, or feeling very worried or sad.
Of those who participated, there were 943 who had tested positive when first approached and who provided answers at every time point.
Among this group, 233 were deemed to have long Covid three months after initially testing positive.
At six months, 135 continued to meet the research definition of long Covid, decreasing to 94 at 12 months.
This reduced to 68 two years after the initial positive test, meaning that 165 of the 233 young people (70 per cent) who had long Covid had recovered.
The study’s chief investigator and first author, Professor Sir Terence Stephenson, said: “Our findings show that for teenagers who fulfilled our research definition of long Covid three months after a positive test for the Covid virus, the majority have recovered after two years.
“This is good news but we intend to do further research to try to better understand why 68 teenagers had not recovered.”
Older teenagers and the most deprived were more likely to have long Covid, experts found.
And girls were more likely than boys to have long Covid, though the study did not account for menstruation and pre-menstrual syndrome.
The authors also emphasised that the original PCR tests were taken before the Delta and Omicron variants became dominant, so the findings may not reflect the long-term effects of these variants.
Commenting on the study, Dr Nathan Cheetham, from King’s College London, said: “This study again shows that health conditions like long Covid tend to affect the most disadvantaged in society, both young and old.
“These results reinforce the need to address the underlying causes of ill-health, such as poor housing conditions, financial stress and unequal access to healthcare services, if we want to shift focus towards preventing illness before inequalities such as those found in this study arise.”
Sammie McFarland, from the charity Long Covid Kids, said: “Two years is a long time in the life of a child.
“While the study reassures us that most participants recovered within this period, the 30% of children and young people still affected highlights that long Covid remains a significant childhood illness and a pressing concern.
“This underscores the urgent need for effective treatments to ease the ongoing burden of this illness.”
