A Feasibility Study of a Rapid Lateral Flow Immunoassay Test for Children and Adolescents to Determine SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence

Global seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in children and adolescents has risen to an estimated 56.6%. Limited data on children highlights the need for ongoing surveillance as recommended by the WHO. Understanding this need, in this study we carry out a feasibility study of a rapid lateral flow immunoassay test (LFIAT) and determine SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in children and adolescents. The method used in the paper included 202 children (1-18 years old) who were evaluated for SARS-CoV-2 IgG/IgM antibodies using the LFIAT. LFIAT provides results in 20 min. Demographic data was collected through questionnaires. As a result, SARS-CoV-2 antibody seroprevalence was 52.0% (n = 105). No gender differences were observed. Adolescents exhibited higher seroprevalence (63.0%) compared to children aged 1-5.9 (49.3%) and 6-11.9 years old (46.8%), without statistical significance (<i>p</i> > 0.05). The median age of seropositive children was 9 years, and 77.1% had a history of PCR-confirmed infection (<i>p</i> = 0.001). In conclusion, results are consistent with global data. It was observed that the LFIAT can be easily administered to children and parents had a positive outlook on the test. Findings suggest that LFIAT can be used to assess SARS-CoV-2 immunity, while providing the first seroprevalence estimate for SARS-CoV-2 among healthy children and adolescents in Turkey, utilizing the COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test-KitA.