Table 1.
Characteristics of children enrolled in the study and by pauci-symptomatic and asymptomatic groups
| Overall, N=605 | Pauci-symptomatic children,* n=283 | Asymptomatic children | P value† | |||
| Previously symptomatic (>7 days),‡ n=118 | No previous symptoms,§ n=204 | Total, n=322 | ||||
| Age (years) | 0.08 | |||||
| Mean±SD | 4.9±3.9 | 4.8±3.7 | 5.6±4.3 | 4.7±4.1 | 5.0±4.2 | 0.1 |
| Median | 3.8 | 4.0 | 4.4 | 3.4 | 3.7 | |
| <3 months | 8 (1.3) | 6 (2.1) | 0 | 2 (1.0) | 2 (0.6) | |
| 3–30 months | 218 (36.0) | 98 (34.6) | 37 (31.4) | 83 (40.7) | 120 (37.3) | |
| 31 months–5 years | 184 (30.4) | 96 (33.9) | 34 (28.8) | 54 (26.5) | 88 (27.3) | |
| 6–10 years | 134 (22.2) | 61 (21.6) | 29 (24.6) | 44 (21.6) | 73 (22.7) | |
| ≥11 years | 61 (10.1) | 22 (7.8) | 18 (15.2) | 21 (10.3) | 39 (12.1) | |
| Sex, male | 322 (53.2) | 152 (53.7) | 65 (55.1) | 105 (51.5) | 170 (52.8) | 0.8 |
| Daycare attendance before lockdown | 0.031 | |||||
| Home | 78 (13.8) | 34 (13.0) | 6 (5.4) | 38 (19.7) | 44 (14.5) | |
| Childminder | 55 (9.7) | 24 (9.2) | 10 (9.0) | 21 (10.9) | 31 (10.2) | |
| Daycare centre | 135 (23.9) | 66 (25.2) | 29 (26.1) | 40 (20.7) | 69 (22.7) | |
| School | 298 (52.7) | 138 (52.7) | 66 (59.5) | 94 (48.7) | 160 (52.6) | |
| Comorbidities | 93 (15.4) | 45 (15.9) | 28 (23.7) | 20 (9.8) | 48 (14.9) | 0.004 |
| Prematurity | 35 (6.3) | 15 (5.7) | 7 (6.1) | 13 (7.4) | 20 (6.9) | 0.8 |
| Siblings | 0.3 | |||||
| 0 | 115 (20.6) | 57 (21.9) | 18 (15.9) | 40 (21.5) | 58 (19.4) | |
| 1 | 282 (50.5) | 136 (52.3) | 61 (54.0) | 85 (45.7) | 146 (48.8) | |
| ≥2 | 162 (29.0) | 67 (25.8) | 34 (30.1) | 61 (32.8) | 95 (31.8) | |
Data are n (%) unless indicated.
*Pauci-symptomatic children were those with fever isolated or associated with respiratory signs, such as cough, dysphagia, rhinorrhoea, diarrhoea, vomiting, rash, dysgeusia and/or anosmia, during the previous 7 days.
†P value compares symptomatic children, asymptomatic children previously symptomatic for >7 days and asymptomatic children without previous symptoms.
‡Previously symptomatic (fever or respiratory or digestive) between 7 days and 2 months before enrolment.
§No previous symptoms.