Funded Projects

Empowering Families Navigating Pediatric Long COVID

Project Year

2026

City & State

Los Angeles, California

Program Name

Planning

Topic

Health Literacy

Program Description

Pediatric Long COVID is estimated to affect approximately 10 to 20 percent of children following SARS-CoV-2 infection, as described in a state-of-the-art review in Pediatrics by Rao and colleagues (2024). In Los Angeles County, many families report prolonged, waxing and waning symptoms that interfere with children’s daily functioning and participation in usual activities. Yet families often lack clear, accessible guidance on how to recognize pediatric Long COVID, manage day to day symptoms at home, and communicate ongoing concerns with their child’s health care team. A secondary focus of this project is to equip families with concise, plain language information they can share with schools to explain fluctuating symptoms and related attendance patterns.  This 12 month planning grant will support the development of bilingual English and Spanish family-facing guidance through a structured, family centered planning process led by a pediatric clinician and community partners. The project will convene three community meetings to gather family input, shape plain language draft guidance, and examine potential dissemination pathways and coordination considerations to inform a future implementation phase.  The project is led by a pediatric clinician at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, in partnership with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and Long Covid Families, a nonprofit that supports children with Long COVID and their families. The planning year will result in draft bilingual guidance and documented planning findings that outline options for future dissemination through community and public health channels if additional funding is secured.

Project Goal

To develop bilingual family education materials about pediatric Long COVID through a structured planning process that centers family decision making and generates planning outputs to inform a future implementation phase.

Project Objective 1

Objective 1: Community engagement and needs assessment  By Month six of the 12 month project period, gather input from families, pediatric clinicians in community safety net clinics, and school health personnel through planned meetings and produce a written summary describing common questions and points of confusion families raise about pediatric Long COVID, information gaps identified by clinicians and school health staff, and what families say they need to better navigate medical care and school support. This summary will be used to determine the content, structure, and tone of bilingual family education materials. 

Project Objective 2

Objective 2: Understanding care seeking perspectives  By Month six of the 12-month project period, document community perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs regarding the diagnosis of pediatric Long COVID, including how families describe these factors as influencing care seeking behaviors, for the purpose of shaping the content, language, and sequencing of bilingual family education materials during the planning process. 

Project Objective 3

Objective 3: Material development  By the end of the 12-month project period, develop draft bilingual family education materials about pediatric Long COVID using input from families, pediatric clinicians, and school health personnel. Draft materials will describe symptom patterns that families commonly report, outline when and how families might seek pediatric evaluation, explain common school support concepts families ask about, and address frequently asked questions raised during planning meetings. Materials will be written in plain language and revised during the planning period based on documented feedback. 

AAP District

District IX

Institutional Name

Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Contact 1

Sindhu Mohandas, MD