DDI announces the establishment of PCR-Q8 or the pediatric Covid-19 registry in Kuwait

Published on 02/09/2021

PCR-Q8 is a collaborative project between the Ministry of Health and DDI.

“Establishing a pediatric COVID-19 registry in Kuwait was deemed imperative during the pandemic to assess children infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) focusing on mode of presentation, therapeutic interventions, disease severity and early outcomes”, says Dr. Hessa Al-kandari, Head of Department, Population Health.

This study workflow has been submitted and accepted in the Medical Principles and Practice journal: Qabazard S. et al., The Pediatric COVID-19 Registry in Kuwait: Methodology and Results of Pilot Phase. The manuscript describes the establishment of the PCR-Q8 registry showcasing an infrastructure of the development processes and presenting the results of its pilot phase.

This registry was both developed and implemented using: the general key steps from Gliklich et al. guideline “Registries for Evaluating Patient Outcomes: A User’s Guide” as a guide for best practice, the experience from a pediatric diabetes registry in Kuwait (CODeR) that was previously established and other COVID-19 registries developed globally.

Experience and expertise from other COVID-19 registries such as the Viral Infection and Respiratory Illness Universal Study (VIRUS), the Lean European Open Survey on SARS-CoV-2 Infected Patients (LEOSS registry) and the German COVID-19-RLP-Registry, guidance provided by the World Health Organization and effective collaboration and cooperation between the stakeholders, study group and data enterers during these challenging times were critical for the development and implementation of the registry.

Data sources are presented below:

During the pilot phase, a convenience sample of 120 children was included, 66 (55%) were male. Our pilot results were similar to international reports where most children presented with mild disease (69.2%), majority (70.2%) had normal chest X-ray, and the most common symptom at presentation was fever (77%).

We anticipate the PCR-Q8 development to be a steppingstone for more in-depth investigation of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children in Kuwait and further other registry establishments.