*Not yet peer-reviewed; but interesting in light of the by-now-abundant* *evidence that children seem protected from COVID-19 infection (and* *therefore don't transmit it).*
*MCM * Sharing a household with children and risk of COVID-19: a study of over 300,000 adults living in healthcare worker households in Scotland View ORCID Profile <http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0165-5987>Rachael Wood, View ORCID Profile <http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1482-0889>Emma C Thomson, Robert Galbraith, Ciara Gribben, David Caldwell, Jennifer Bishop, Martin Reid, View ORCID Profile <http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2825-3419>Anoop Shah, Kate Templeton, David Goldberg, Chris Robertson, Sharon Hutchinson, Helen M Colhoun, Paul M McKeigue, View ORCID Profile <http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3550-1764>David McAllister *https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.21.20196428v1 <https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.21.20196428v1>* This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review [what does this mean?]. It reports new medical research that has yet to be evaluated and so should *not* be used to guide clinical practice. <https://www.medrxiv.org/content/what-unrefereed-preprint> - Abstract <https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.21.20196428v1> - Info/History <https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.21.20196428v1.article-info> - Metrics <https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.21.20196428v1.article-metrics> - - Preview PDF <https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.21.20196428v1.full.pdf+html> Abstract Background Children are relatively protected from novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). The reasons for this protection are not well understood but differences in the immune response to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have been implicated. If such differences are due to differential exposure to non-SARS-CoV-2 infectious agents, adults who are close contacts of children may partly share in this protection. Such a protective effect would have important implications for the lives of children, not least in terms of schooling. Methods Using a Scotland-wide record-linkage based occupational cohort comprising healthcare workers and members of their households, we examined whether sharing a household with young children (aged 0 to 11) attenuated the risk of hospitalisation with COVID-19, and/or testing positive for COVID-19 infection of any severity (any case of Covid-19). All healthcare workers directly employed by the National health Service (NHS) in Scotland, or contracted to provide general practice services, were included. Outcome and covariate data were obtained via linkage to Scotland-wide microbiology, drug prescribing, hospitalisation and death data. Results 241,266 adults did not share a household with young children; 41,198, 23,783 and 3,850 shared a household with 1, 2 and 3 or more young children respectively. The risk of hospitalisation with COVID-19 was lower in those with one child and lower still in those with two or more children, adjusting for age the hazard ratio (HR) was 0.83 per child (95% CI 0.70-0.99). On additionally adjusting for sex, socioeconomic deprivation, occupation, professional role, staff/non-staff status, the number of adults and adolescents in each household, and comorbidity, the HR was 0.89 per child (95% CI 0.74-1.06). An association of the same magnitude, but more precisely estimated, was obtained for any case of COVID-19 (fully adjusted model, HR per child 0.89; 95% CI 0.84-0.95). Conclusion Increased household exposure to young children was associated with an attenuated risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 and appeared to also be associated with an attenuated risk of COVID-19 disease severe enough to require hospitalisation. *Click on the link for the rest.* --- Support News from Underground: http://bit.ly/NFUSupport You received this email because you are subscribed to News from Underground. To unsubscribe from this email list, please go to: http://www.simplelists.com/confirm.php?u=pIdjNUgiG2h8yxbhC54SSy4SEskAoEMs For archives, please go to: http://archives.simplelists.com/nfu
