Unseen Struggles: Assessing the impact of long COVID on students and the need for educational support in schools, 2025, Veerakumar et al

[forestglip]

Unseen Struggles: Assessing the impact of long COVID on students and the need for educational support in schools

Lisha Veerakumar, Sanandhana Vetrivelan

[Line breaks added]

Highlights
• Long COVID symptoms, though often considered not serious, can significantly impact children’s lives.
• Children with long COVID require support to meet academic demands due to symptom disruptions.
• Students experiencing fatigue, mental health issues, or trouble sleeping are more likely to need school accommodations.
• It’s essential to raise awareness among parents and school authorities to ensure students with long COVID receive the necessary support.

Purpose
Long COVID, the long-lasting effects of COVID infection, has emerged as a global concern, especially among school-aged children. While its prevalence has been studied, it is critical to explore which long COVID symptoms impact children’s performance and to assess the role of school-based interventions and accommodations for these students.

Therefore, this study aims to determine the prevalence and role of long COVID symptoms among school children, assess the necessity of school-based support and services, and identify the symptoms that prompt children to request such support.

The study also seeks to raise awareness among parents and school authorities about the challenges faced by children with long COVID, thus addressing a gap in the existing literature.

Method
A questionnaire to study long COVID was developed following a literature review. A convenient sampling approach was employed to conduct a cross-sectional survey among 82 community school children in a U.S. school district with a prior SARS-CoV-2 infection history.

Results
Among the 82 children surveyed, 28% reported experiencing one symptom, 22% reported multiple symptoms, and 4% experienced up to four symptoms potentially linked to long COVID. 32% of affected students required school support.

The most commonly reported symptoms were trouble sleeping, anxiety, and tiredness. These symptoms statistically correlated with students’ reported need for school support.

Conclusions
More than half of the students surveyed reported having long COVID symptoms, ranging from one to four symptoms, highlighting the need for school support. The strong correlation between these symptoms and the necessity for school support underscores the necessity of increasing awareness among school authorities about the challenges faced by students due to long COVID. The findings can be used to adopt a flexible approach to support these students effectively.

Link (Children and Youth Services Review) [Paywall, In Press Journal Pre-proof]

 

[Hutan]

Well intentioned, but I wonder if this is actually counter productive. I haven't read more than the abstract and so am basing my conclusions on that, but lots of other people will do the same.

Of course we want all students who have trouble sleeping, have anxiety and mental health issues, and who are tired to be supported by their schools. But, when half of the students surveyed are reporting 'Long Covid symptoms', that makes me wonder about their survey approach ('convenient sampling approach') and their definition of Long Covid. There's no sense of the severity of the symptoms (in fact the abstract says 'though often considered not serious'), and seemingly no measurement of the severity on the study either.

I think the risk is that you make Long Covid trivial, maybe even a bit derisory, e.g. 'well, we're all tired', 'perhaps if they laid off the social media and the computer games, they wouldn't have these problems'. People might read the abstract and think Long covid is a combination of mental health issues and a lack of self-discipline.

So, the young people who really need help don't get identified as having something really life-limiting. And so they just get lumped into a group offered sleep hygiene advice and a mindfulness course.