Iijima, Hiroyuki, Funaki, Takanori, Kubota, Mitsuru · Pediatrics international : official journal of the Japan Pediatric Society · 2025 · DOI
This study followed Japanese children hospitalized with COVID-19 and their parents to see how many developed long-COVID symptoms. About 45% of children had lingering symptoms one month after infection, dropping to 23% by six months. The most common symptoms were cough, tiredness, and sleep problems, with sleep issues being most strongly linked to a reduced quality of life.
This study provides longitudinal evidence that post-COVID symptoms in children can persist for months and overlap with ME/CFS diagnostic criteria, particularly regarding fatigue and sleep disturbance. Understanding the prevalence and trajectory of these symptoms in pediatric populations is critical for recognizing and supporting children who may develop ME/CFS-like illness following SARS-CoV-2 infection.
This study does not establish causation between specific COVID-19 viral mechanisms and ME/CFS development, nor does it determine whether post-COVID symptoms in children are identical to classical ME/CFS. The findings are limited to a Japanese hospitalized cohort, which may not represent all children with COVID-19, particularly those with milder disease managed at home.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Iijima, Hiroyuki, Funaki, Takanori, & Kubota, Mitsuru (2025). Long-COVID in children and their parents: A prospective cohort study.. Pediatrics international : official journal of the Japan Pediatric Society. https://doi.org/10.1111/ped.70042
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-iijima-2025-long-covid,
author = {Iijima, Hiroyuki and Funaki, Takanori and Kubota, Mitsuru},
title = {Long-COVID in children and their parents: A prospective cohort study.},
journal = {Pediatrics international : official journal of the Japan Pediatric Society},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.1111/ped.70042},
note = {PubMed: 40351239},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/iijima-2025-long-covid},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/iijima-2025-long-covid
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.