COVID-19 is a leading cause of death among US children and teens, study shows

COVID-19 was the top infectious disease killer for kids and teens in the U.S. between August 2021 and July 2022, a new analysis shows. It also ranked among the leading causes of death for any reason for U.S. children and teens in the same time period, the researchers determined.

The research, published Monday (Jan. 30) in the journal JAMA Network Open (opens in new tab), utilized data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER) database, which includes mortality statistics drawn from the death certificates. 

The analysis took into account only deaths where COVID-19 was listed as the underlying, or primary, cause of death, as opposed to a contributing factor. In the study timeframe, 821 people ages 19 and younger died of the disease; that's an overall death rate of about one COVID-19 death per 100,000 people in the age group. 

"COVID-19 deaths constituted 2% of all causes of death in this age group," the researchers reported.

To put this death toll in context, the team pulled child and teen mortality data from 2019, before the pandemic began. In doing so, they checked the National Center for Health Statistics' ranked list of causes of death, where the causes are ordered by the frequency at which they're reported. 

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Placed within this list, the rate of COVID-19 deaths in the study period exceeded the rate of influenza and pneumonia deaths in 2019 — reported at 0.6 deaths per 100,000 people — and fell just short of deaths caused by heart disease — 1.1 deaths per 100,000 people. That placed COVID-19 eighth out of the 10 ranked causes of death. 

If the team excluded deaths unrelated to disease, meaning those caused by unintentional injuries, assault or suicide, COVID-19 ranked fifth out of the remaining causes of death. (Unintentional injuries initially ranked second, at 9.1 deaths per 100,000 people, and assaults and suicides ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, at about 3.4 deaths per 100,000 people.)

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"Our study period, August 1, 2021, to July 31, 2022, coincides with substantial infection waves of the COVID-19 Delta and Omicron variants," the researchers noted in their report. 

Finally, the researchers looked at the 10 leading causes of death dating back to 2015. They found that the rankings had remained largely unchanged between 2015 and 2021, with the exception of COVID-19 making the list in 2021.

"In this study, COVID-19 was a leading cause of death among individuals aged 0 to 19 years in the US," the study authors concluded. "Our findings underscore the public health relevance of COVID-19 to CYP [children and young people]."