Experiences of living with long COVID during childhood and adolescence: a qualitative study from the child’s perspective, 2025, Lillieberg et al

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Experiences of living with long COVID during childhood and adolescence: a qualitative study from the child’s perspective

Emmy Lillieberg, Per Ertzgaard, Eva Fernlund, Karel Duchen, Patrik Rytterström & Charlotte Angelhoff

Background
In February 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) defined long COVID in children, highlighting limited knowledge about its psychosocial impact. Studies show it as a complex, long-lasting condition affecting multiple systems. WHO and researchers emphasise the need for more understanding, particularly its effect on daily life. The aim of this study was to explore how life is experienced and how it changed whilst living with long COVID during childhood.

Methods
We present a qualitative study with an inductive and exploratory approach. Between October 2022 and March 2024, 16 children between 9 and 18 years old diagnosed with long COVID were interviewed face-to-face using a semi-structured interview guide. The results were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis by Braun and Clarke.

Results
The results present the subjective reality of children suffering from long COVID and their struggle in daily life. The findings are presented through three themes: Losing my foothold, Fatigue decides my path, and My way forward, illustrating a temporal and emotional journey, reflecting how children make sense of their experiences, adapt to the persistent impact of long COVID, and gradually move toward acceptance.

Conclusions
This study addresses the lack of knowledge of long COVID in the society, how it affects children in their struggle to find a new path in life. It also shows that, with knowledge and support, the symptoms and the burden of the condition can decrease or even pass. It is important that people around these children, including health care, school and family, use this knowledge to promote health and avoid educational, health and social problems at a vulnerable time in life.

Web | PDF | BMC Pediatrics | Open Access
 
The paper said:
This study addresses the lack of knowledge of long COVID in the society
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It's a disabling illness. The only part of society that is expected to be knowledgeable is medicine. It is not, largely by a combination of choice and extreme stubbornness. And this study does no such thing, this was the problem from the start, and it hasn't improved one tiny bit. It's been 5.5 years, FFS!
It is important that people around these children, including health care, school and family, use this knowledge to promote health and avoid educational, health and social problems at a vulnerable time in life.
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What does that even mean or have to do with anything? How will that accomplish anything? To whom should this be promoted to? The people who haven't squat about it?! Who keep producing fake useless study after fake useless study instead of actually putting into motion the means to actually solve this?
 
The findings are presented through three themes: Losing my foothold, Fatigue decides my path, and My way forward, illustrating a temporal and emotional journey, reflecting how children make sense of their experiences, adapt to the persistent impact of long COVID, and gradually move toward acceptance.
Click to expand...
Those are the professionals' themes. People who don't even understand the problem and just make stuff up, put words in the mouths of people who can and do speak for themselves but are systematically ignored.

Screw your acceptance. This is unacceptable! Why do they accept unacceptable things without even making an effort about it?!
 
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