School-Age Children With Long COVID Have More Functional Limitations, Higher Absenteeism

Among school-age children who have had COVID-19, those living with long COVID were more than twice as likely to report functional limitations, such as memory problems and difficulty concentrating, compared to children who did not have long COVID, according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Those who had long COVID were more likely to have illness-related chronic absenteeism (defined as missing 18 or more days of school).

The researchers analyzed a sample of 11,057 U.S. children ages 5 to 17 years. Within this group, 4,587 had contracted . . .