Study Finds That Parents Discount Their Children's COVID-19 Symptoms

Children can also be infected with COVID-19 and spread it to other people contrary to early reports during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a large-scale contact tracing study, children are getting infected in significant numbers although their role in transmission is debated.

Usually, adults get infected with COVID-19 and experience severe cases especially those with underlying health conditions, while children experience mild symptoms of COVID-19.

However, a new study has shown that parents' perceptions of the COVID-like symptoms of their children affect their attitudes towards isolating them from other people in their household.

Parents Normalize Their Children's Symptoms

The researchers from King's College London said that parents tend to find the most likely reason for their children's symptoms and discounts the possibility of COVID-19. Meaning, they normalize the symptoms in order to reduce the perceived risk of the deadly disease and having to isolate them.

The study was published as a pre-print in medRxiv. The researchers conducted a telephone interview with parents who have children ages 4 to 18.

The researchers found that parents are more likely to attribute high body temperature or unusual symptoms as present on COVID-19 patients. Parents also tend to normalize symptoms to reduce perceived risk wherein when symptoms were mild they tend to worry less.

Moreover, parents believe that it would be hard to isolate themselves from other people in the household, expressing concerns for their small children who do not understand the boundaries needed for isolation. Besides, parents are also thinking of the difficulty in isolating themselves as they need to gather food supplies for the family.

But most of all, isolation seems to be hard with limited space inside their homes. This is more concerning if they share bedrooms with other family members. Also, it might also be hard for the members of their household to implement proper isolation measures.

Overall, the study highlights the complex perceptions of parents on COVID-like symptoms and how it affects their attitudes towards isolation. The researchers suggest that through guidance on information regarding the symptoms of COVID-19 and how to prevent infection, and assisting parents in food supplies will help them overcome these challenges.

Asymptomatic Children Carry Higher COVID-19 Viral Loads

A study by Massachusetts General Hospital and MassGeneral Hospital for Children showed that infected children, including those asymptomatic cases, have higher levels of viral loads than adults in intensive care units.

According to the researchers, over 25% of the 192 children involved in the study tested positive for COVID-19 showed high levels of viral loads. They published their study in the Journal of Pediatrics.

They also advise educational settings from daycare to high school to take this information seriously and consider it when determining the best school set-up this year, wbur.org reported.

Check out more news and information on COVID-19 in Science Times.