Outcomes and risk factors for death among hospitalized children and adolescents with kidney diseases and COVID-19: an analysis of a nationwide database

Background Patients with kidney diseases (KD) appear to be at particularly high risk for severe COVID-19. This study aimed to characterize the clinical outcomes and risk factors for COVID-19-related death in a large cohort of hospitalized pediatric patients with KD. Methods We performed an analysis of all pediatric patients with KD and COVID-19 registered in SIVEP-Gripe, a Brazilian nationwide surveillance database, between February 16, 2020, and May 29, 2021. The primary outcome was time to death, which was evaluated considering discharge as a competitive risk by using cumulative incidence function. Results Among 21,591 hospitalized patients with COVID-19, 290 cases (1.3%) had KD. Of these, 59 (20.8%) had a fatal outcome compared with 7.5% of the non-KD cohort ( P < 0.001). Pediatric patients with KD had an increased hazard of death compared with the non-KD cohort (Hazard ratio [HR] = 2.85, 95% CI 2.21–3.68, P < 0.0001). After adjustment, the factors associated with the death among KD patients were living in Northeast (HR 2.16, 95% CI 1.13–4.31) or North regions (HR 3.50, 95% CI 1.57–7.80), oxygen saturation < 95% at presentation (HR 2.31, 95% CI 1.30–4.10), and presence of two or more associated comorbidities (HR 2.10, 95% CI 1.08–4.04). Conclusions Children and adolescents with KD had a higher risk of death compared with the non-KD cohort. The higher risk was associated with low oxygen saturation at admission, living in socioeconomically disadvantaged regions, and presence of other pre-existing comorbidities. Graphical abstract A higher resolution version of the Graphical abstract is available as Supplementary information