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Review
Bibliography of published COVID-19 in children literature
  1. Philippa Anna Stilwell1,
  2. Alasdair P. S. Munro2,3,
  3. Emre Basatemur4,
  4. Nishanthi Talawila Da Camara5,
  5. Rachel Harwood6,7,
  6. Damian Roland8,9
  1. 1 Department of Community Paediatrics, Evelina London Children's Hospital, London, UK
  2. 2 NIHR Southampton Clinical Research Facility and NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton, UK
  3. 3 Faculty of Medicine and Institute for Life Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, Hampshire, UK
  4. 4 UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health Population Policy and Practice, London, UK
  5. 5 Research and Quality Improvement, RCPCH, London, UK
  6. 6 Department of Paediatric Surgery, Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool, UK
  7. 7 Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
  8. 8 Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
  9. 9 Paediatric Emergency Medicine Leicester Academic (PEMLA) Group, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Leicester, UK
  1. Correspondence to Alasdair P. S. Munro, National Institute of Health Research Southampton Clinical Research Facility, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK; A.Munro{at}soton.ac.uk

Abstract

Background The COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest worldwide health challenge in this century. Research concerning the role of children in the spread of SARS-CoV-2, and investigating the clinical effects of infection in children, has been vital. This paper describes the publication trend for pertinent scientific literature relating to COVID-19 in children during the first 6 months of the pandemic.

Methods A comprehensive search of preprint and published literature was conducted daily across four databases (PubMed, Scopus, Ovid-Embase and MedRXiv) between 1 January 2020 and 30 June 2020. Titles and abstracts were screened against predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Findings Over the study period, a total of 45 453 papers were retrieved, of which 476 met our inclusion criteria. The cumulative number of children described in included publications totalled (at most) 41 396. The median number of children per paper was 6 (IQR 1–33). Nearly one-third of papers (30.2%) reported on a single child, and a further 28.3% reported on between 1 and 9 children. Half of all the publications originated from Asia.

Interpretation Our prospective bibliographic analysis of paediatric COVID-19 publications demonstrated a steady increase in the number of papers over time. Understanding and policy evolved with new information that was gathered over the course of the study period. However, over half of publications were individual case reports or small case series, which may have had a limited contribution to advancement of knowledge. During a pandemic, literature should be interpreted with great caution, and clinical/policy decisions should be continually reviewed in light of emerging evidence.

  • COVID-19
  • data collection
  • epidemiology

Data availability statement

Data are available on reasonable request. Data available on request.

This article is made freely available for personal use in accordance with BMJ’s website terms and conditions for the duration of the covid-19 pandemic or until otherwise determined by BMJ. You may use, download and print the article for any lawful, non-commercial purpose (including text and data mining) provided that all copyright notices and trade marks are retained.

https://bmj.com/coronavirus/usage

https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2021-321751

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    Data availability statement

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    Footnotes

    • PAS and APSM are joint first authors.

    • Twitter @RachelHarwood10, @damian_roland

    • Contributors PAS contributed to the conception and design, interpretation of data, drafted the initial draft, revised the draft and approved the final version to be published. AM contributed to the conception and design, acquisition and interpretation of data, revised the draft and approved the final version to be published. PAS and AM contributed equally as joint first authors. EB contributed to the design, analyses/interpretation of data, revised the draft and approved of the final version to be published. NTDC contributed to the conception and design, acquisition and analyses of data, revised the draft and approved of the final version to be published. RH contributed to the design, revised the draft and approved of the final version to be published. DR contributed to the conception and design, interpretation of data, revised the draft and approved of the final version to be published.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

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    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.