A study of children up to age 14 in Denmark finds that those who had been infected by SARS-CoV-2 were more likely to have symptoms at least 2 months later—commonly called "long COVID"—but the risk appears to be only slightly higher than in their uninfected peers.The study, published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, investigated the duration of long COVID symptoms as well as quality-of-life scores and it involved 10,997 infected children (cases) and 33,016 uninfected controls whose parents or guardians filled out surveys from Jul 20, 2021, to Sep 15, 2021.One important caveat: Children involved in the study tested positive for COVID-19 largely before the more serious Delta variant — and well before the highly transmissible Omicron variant — had appeared on the scene.Risk of long COVID: 21% to 78%For the study, researchers from the University of Copenhagen and the University of Southern Denmark sent surveys to the mothers or guardians of children from 0 to 14 years old who had tested positive for COVID-19 from January 2020 to July 2021.The surveys asked about the 23 most common symptoms of long COVID in children and used the World Health Organization's definition of long COVID as symptoms lasting more than 2 months.Cases-patients had higher odds of reporting at least one symptom lasting more than 2 months than did controls in the 0- to 3-year-old age-group (40.0% vs 27.2%; odds ratio [OR], 1.78), 4- to 11-year-old group (38.1% vs 33.7%; OR, 1.23), and 12- to 14-year-old group (46.0% vs 41.3%; OR, 1.21).The most commonly reported symptoms in children 0 to 3 years old were mood swings, rashes, and stomach aches.