Covid-19 and Post-infection Health Risk Assessment on Children Under Five Years: A Cross-sectional Study on Public Health Centres

Abstract

Abstract Background Public health centres (PHCs) as primary healthcare in Indonesia were pivotal in handling COVID-19 detection, management, and reporting. Limited studies show various findings on COVID-19 management and its impact on further health risks, particularly in vulnerable populations like children under five years. Methods This cross-sectional study assessed secondary data from tracing reports, patient medical records, and integrated management childhood illness reports. Samples were collected using stratified random sampling based on three age groups (< 1 year, 1-3 years, 3-5 years) and the period of COVID-19 infection (2020, 2021, 2022) from ten district PHCs in East Jakarta. The collected data was analysed for descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate statistical analysis using IBM SPSS 26th version. Results 677 patients were included in this study, with the majority from 2021 (44.2%) with age 28 [0-60] months and male patients (52.6%). Only 4.14% of them have available records of vaccination history in PHC, so the risks of further respiratory problems based on vaccination status were not feasible to assess. 23.63% of them received the COVID-19 medications, with the most frequently prescribed vitamins-supplements (27.96%) and cough-related medications (12.17%). Patients with medications have fewer visits to PHCs in one semester after COVID-19 (U=-2,728, p=0.006). Acute upper respiratory infection was the most prevalent (30.32%) reason for patients' revisits after COVID-19 infection, and there were also reinfection cases of COVID-19 (4.52%). The risks of respiratory problems have no significant difference between age group, gender, and COVID-19 treatment history. The lack of complete and integrated data availability has become a hurdle to further analysis. Conclusion A small proportion of children under five years were receiving COVID-19 medication in PHCs and it poses a potential impact of decreasing further patient encounters with healthcare. There is a need for better health data management and integration in PHCs to be used as comprehensive assessments of community health risks, particularly for special populations.