Impact of Age and Gender on the Incidence of COVID-19 in Children at Pasar Rebo Hospital, Jakarta

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 is a new type of coronavirus that has never been previously identified in humans. COVID-19 can cause respiratory system disorders, ranging from mild symptoms such as flu, to lung infections, such as pneumonia. The average incubation period is 5-6 days with the longest incubation period being 14 days. This virus spread rapidly around the world, including to Indonesia. From March 2, 2020 to July 9, 2020, Indonesia reported 70,736 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 3,417 deaths (CFR 4.8%). Based on data obtained from the Indonesian Pediatrician Association, 416 out of 72,314 cases confirmed positive for COVID-19 (0.9%) were children aged less than 10 years, 549/72,314 or 1% were children aged 10-19 years, and 450 of them had died by March 21, 2020. This study aimed to examine the relationship between age and gender with the incidence of COVID-19 in children at Pasar Rebo Hospital, Jakarta. Data collection used secondary data, the sample included 150 respondents, and the research instrument used was observation sheets at Pasar Rebo Hospital, Jakarta. The design of this study was quantitative cross-sectional. This research used the Chi-square test and t-test for data analysis. A total of 57.3% of respondents were male, and 42% had symptoms. According to the findings, there was a relationship between age and gender with the incidence of COVID-19 in children (p < 0.001). Male children were more at risk of being infected with COVID-19 than females, likely due to differences in the immunological system related to gender as women have a lower susceptibility to viral infections than men. Based on the results, there was also a relationship between age and the incidence of COVID-19 in children at the hospital. These results have implications for differences in the nursing care that is needed for boys vs. girls with COVID-19. Keywords: COVID-19, children, age, gender