Value of content analysis and verbal-communicative research method in studying the features of the course of acute respiratory disease novel COVID-19 in children

Abstract

The purpose - to study the peculiarities of the course of COVID-19 according to data of content analysis and the verbal-communicative method among children with SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Materials and methods. The study of features of the course of COVID-19 among children was carried out using two methods: content analysis of 54 medical records of inpatients and a verbal-communicative method by surveying 53 patients with further subsequent comparative evaluation of these methods. SARS-CoV-2 infection was diagnosed by an express method with the TESTSEALABS testing kit. Verification of SARS-CoV-2 infection was carried out by detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA by PCR. The data of both methods included age, sex, epidemiological history, complaints, assessment of the general condition, clinical manifestations, forms of the course of the disease, etc.

Results. A comparative assessment of the two research methods showed that the verbal-communicative method, in comparison with the content analysis, made it possible to study in detail the features of the course of disease among children. In particular, the study found that the fever in most patients was remitting (significantly increased in the evening), lasting more than 5 days or more. Infants most often had pulmonary manifestations: cough, difficult breathing through the nose, shortness of breath at rest, fever, intermittent sucking of the breast or refusal of it, crying, restlessness; in isolated cases - febrile convulsions. In early and preschool age, in addition to pulmonary manifestations, the equivalent of anosmia/ageusia - “bad food” was detected; high frequency of gastrointestinal (abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, acetonuria) and skin manifestations (covid cheilitis, injected sclera, papulo-vesicular rash, covid fingers). A milder course of the disease took place in junior and senior school age. In high school age, headache, musculoskeletal pain/ache, sore throat, hoarseness of voice, anosmia, ageusia were the most often noted - which resembled the course of COVID-19 in adults.

Conclusions. A comparative assessment of content analysis and the verbal communicative method confirmed that in medical practice, for the in-depth study of features of the course of COVID-19, these two methods should be used in combination as complementary and mutually clarifying.

The research was carried out in accordance with the principles of the Helsinki Declaration. The study protocol was approved by the Local Ethics Committee of the participating institution. The informed consent of the patient was obtained for conducting the studies.

No conflict of interests was declared by the authors.