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An analysis of thousands of medical records finds teens, children with diabetes or cancer, lower-income families, and Black, Latinx and Asian groups are hit the hardest when it comes to children who were tested and treated for COVID-19.

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is part of the most comprehensive analysis to date of more than 135,000 U.S. children between January and September 2020. The findings were reported by , an organization that represents seven of the nation's largest pediatric medical centers, including Cincinnati Children's.

Monday.

"These findings are important because they improve our understanding of the impact of COVID-19 in the pediatric population," says Nathan Pajor, MD, a pulmonary medicine specialist at Cincinnati Children鈥檚 and a co-author of the study. "We see that relative to adults, kids are less likely to have severe disease or to die from COVID-19. However, we also notice the disproportionately high rates of infection among Black, Asian and Hispanic children as a clear target of further study."

Here are highlights of the analysis, according to a news release from Children's:

• Like previous smaller studies the data shows that children are less likely to test positive and less likely to suffer severe illness when they do get infected.
• Patients of African-American, Hispanic and Asian race/ethnicity were less likely than white children to be tested. However they were 2-4 times more likely to test positive.
• Teens and young adults were more likely to test positive than younger children.
• Children covered by Medicaid and other public programs were more likely to test positive than children from privately insured families.
• Underlying cancer, diabetes (Types 1 and 2), and other immune-suppressive conditions were indicators of increased risk of severe disease. But children with asthma were not found to be at increased risk of severe illness.
• Among the 5,374 children who tested positive, 7% required hospital admissions. Of those hospitalized, 28% required intensive care and 9% required mechanical ventilation. Of the hospitalized children, eight died. (Case fatality rate: 0.2%)

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