Prolonged School Closure and Pediatric Respiratory Hospitalization: The Silver Lining of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objective. This is a single-center retrospective cohort study that aimed to quantitatively assess the association between prolonged school closure (>2 weeks) and pediatric respiratory hospitalization during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods. Subjects included 1243 patients presenting to Children's Hospital of Michigan during the winters of 2019, 2020, and 2021. The primary outcome measures were total respiratory hospitalizations and respiratory diagnoses. Results. Data was analyzed using a 2-sample z-test for proportions. We found that pediatric patients in the setting of prolonged school closure had significantly fewer hospitalizations in 2020 compared to 2019 (9% vs 47%; P < .001) and 2021 (9% vs 45%; P < .001). There were decreases in bronchiolitis, asthma/reactive airway disease (RAD), and pneumonia hospitalizations compared to 2019 and 2021. Conclusions. Our study showed that during prolonged school closure, there was a significant decrease in pediatric respiratory hospitalization. As such, it should be considered when creating a pandemic response strategy.

Bladder and bowel dysfunction: evidence for multidisciplinary care.

PURPOSE: We examined the symptoms of bladder-bowel dysfunction (ie severity of voiding dysfunction and stool consistency) and psychosocial difficulties in children presenting to the pediatric urology clinic for voiding dysfunction and to the pediatric gastroenterology clinic for functional constipation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Parents of children seen at the gastroenterology clinic were recruited during the outpatient clinic appointment, and parents of children seen at the urology clinic were randomly selected from the research database and matched to the gastroenterology sample based on age and gender of the child. All parents completed the Dysfunctional Voiding Scoring System, Bristol Stool Form Scale, Pediatric Symptom Checklist and Parenting Stress Index™-Short Form, which assessed severity of voiding dysfunction, stool consistency, level of psychosocial difficulties and level of parenting stress, respectively. RESULTS: Children seen at the urology and gastroenterology clinics did not differ significantly on any of the measures, indicating that the severity of their bladder-bowel dysfunction is similar. However, they had significantly more severe voiding dysfunction, more constipated stool and more psychosocial difficulties than historical healthy controls. Additionally, level of parenting stress was significantly correlated with patient level of psychosocial difficulties and severity of voiding dysfunction. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with bladder and bowel dysfunction represent a homogeneous group that would potentially benefit from a multidisciplinary treatment approach involving urology, gastroenterology and psychology professionals.