Development and validation of the Post-COVID Symptom Scale for Children/Youth (PCSS-C/Y).

Publication date: Dec 13, 2024

This study aims to develop and validate the Post-COVID Symptom Scale for Children/Youth (PCSS-C/Y), which is a comprehensive tool for measuring the symptom burden of post-COVID-19 conditions-persistent symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 infection, commonly known as Long COVID-and its impact on health-related quality of life among children and adolescents. Parents of children and adolescents, adolescents, and young adults with and without a history of COVID-19 were invited to fill in a questionnaire from October 2022 to June 2023. There were 386 valid parent proxy-reported responses, 433 valid adolescent self-reported responses, and 324 valid young adult self-reported responses included in the final analysis. The PCSS-C/Y demonstrated stable factor structure and good internal consistency in different sampling groups. The scale score was negatively associated with Paediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) scores (young adult self-report, adjusted R = 0. 394; adolescent self-report, adjusted R = 0. 219; parent-report, adjusted R = 0. 292), while it was positively associated with Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) scores (young adult self-report, adjusted R = 0. 195; adolescent self-report, adjusted R = 0. 154; parent-report, adjusted R = 0. 239). The scale can also discriminate the post-infected cases and control cases, Cohen’s d = 0. 41, 0. 50, and 0. 38 for adult self-report, adolescent self-report, and parent-report, respectively. Conclusions: The PCSS-C/Y is a valid and reliable tool for quantifying the diverse symptomatology of post-COVID-19 conditions in children and adolescents. It provides quantifiable measurements that enable clinicians to monitor post-COVID-19 symptoms in children and young people and facilitates the development of interventions for post-COVID-19 conditions.

Concepts Keywords
Adolescents Adolescent
June Adolescents
October Child
Paediatric Children
Proxy COVID-19
Female
Humans
Male
Parents
Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome
Post-COVID-19 condition
Psychometrics
Quality of Life
Quality of life
Reproducibility of Results
SARS-CoV-2
Self Report
Surveys and Questionnaires
Symptom burden
Young Adult

Semantics

Type Source Name
disease IDO symptom
disease MESH symptom burden
disease MESH SARS-CoV-2 infection
pathway REACTOME SARS-CoV-2 Infection
disease MESH Long COVID
disease IDO quality
disease IDO history

Original Article

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