REACT Children and Young People

Some children with COVID-19 experience symptoms for several weeks or months (Long COVID), while others have a short illness or no symptoms. We have little understanding of why this happens.

The REACT Children and Young People (REACT-CYP) study involves follow-up of over 10,000 children aged 5-17 years to investigate socio-demographic factors affecting why some children get Long COVID and others don’t, and what impact Long COVID has on their longer term education and health outcomes, cognitive function and health-related quality of life.

REACT-CYP is uniquely placed to include a large and diverse group of children aged 5-17 years from the wider REACT programme who have had different experiences of COVID-19. REACT-CYP aims to identify new approaches to diagnosing, supporting and managing children and young people with Long COVID.

We are working closely with a panel of public advisers including young people and parents of children with Long COVID at every stage of the research cycle, including study design, delivery and interpretation of the study findings. The Panel will be involved in the production of outputs and the dissemination strategy to ensure that materials are fit for purpose and meet the needs of participants and the wider public.

The study is being carried out in partnership with the Department of Brain Sciences at Imperial College London.

Information for study participants

Parents of study participants and study participants can access more information about the research via the REACT CYP Participant Information Sheet for parents and children

Younger study participants can access more information about the research via the REACT CYP Participant Information Sheet for parents and children

Publications

Atchison CJ, Whitaker M, Donnelly CA et al. Characteristics and predictors of persistent symptoms post-COVID-19 in children and young people: a large community cross-sectional study in England. Archives of Disease in Childhood Published Online First: 02 March 2023. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2022-325152.