A Population-Based Study of COVID-19 Infection Among Childhood Cancer Survivors
Childhood cancer survivors are known to be at risk of chronic co-morbidities, although their risk of COVID-19 infection remains uncertain. Understanding the risk of COVID-19 in this population is necessary to counsel survivors and inform potential mitigation strategies. The objective of this study w...
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Published in | Frontiers in medicine Vol. 8; p. 718316 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Frontiers Media S.A
07.09.2021
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Childhood cancer survivors are known to be at risk of chronic co-morbidities, although their risk of COVID-19 infection remains uncertain. Understanding the risk of COVID-19 in this population is necessary to counsel survivors and inform potential mitigation strategies. The objective of this study was to determine whether the rates of COVID-19 infection differed between childhood cancer survivors and the general population. Administrative health care data from a population-based registry of children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer in Ontario, Canada, were linked with a universal health insurance registry and a repository of laboratory data. Rates of COVID-19 testing, test positivity and infection between March 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021 among childhood cancer survivors (
n
= 10 242) were compared to matched controls from the general population (
n
= 49 068). Compared to the general population, childhood cancer survivors were more likely to have COVID-19 testing (35.9% [95% CI, 34.5–37.4%] vs. 32.0% [95% CI, 31.4–32.6%]), but had a lower likelihood of positive COVID-19 result among those tested (4.3% [95% CI, 3.6–4.9%] vs. 5.5% [95% CI, 5.1–5.8%]) and a similar rate of infection among all subjects at risk (1.5% [95% CI, 1.3–1.8%] vs. 1.7% [95% CI, 1.6–1.9%]). These findings can inform counseling of survivors and clinician recommendations for this population. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Edited by: Yousef Saleh Khader, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan Reviewed by: Nitya Singh, University of Florida, United States; Rajendra Nerli, KLE Society Hospital, India This article was submitted to Infectious Diseases - Surveillance, Prevention and Treatment, a section of the journal Frontiers in Medicine These authors have contributed equally to this work and share first authorship |
ISSN: | 2296-858X 2296-858X |
DOI: | 10.3389/fmed.2021.718316 |