Childhood asthma diagnoses declined during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
Respir Res
; 24(1): 72, 2023 Mar 10.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36899362
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Prior studies have documented declines in pediatric asthma exacerbations and asthma-related health care utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic, but less is known about the incidence of asthma during the pandemic.METHODS:
We conducted a retrospective cohort study of children under age 18 without a prior diagnosis of asthma within a large US commercial claims database. Incident asthma was defined using a combination of diagnosis codes, location of services, and medication dispensing. Crude quarterly rates of asthma diagnosis per 1000 children were calculated, and the incidence rate ratio and 95% confidence interval were estimated for newly diagnosed asthma during versus before the pandemic using negative binomial regression, adjusted for age, sex, region, and season.RESULTS:
Compared with 3 years prior to the pandemic, crude incident diagnosis rates of asthma decreased by 52% across the first four quarters of the US pandemic. The covariate-adjusted pandemic-associated incidence rate ratio was 0.47 (95% confidence interval 0.43, 0.51).CONCLUSIONS:
New diagnoses of childhood asthma in the US declined by half during the first year of the pandemic. These findings raise important questions whether pandemic-related changes in infectious or other triggers truly altered the incidence of childhood asthma beyond the well-described disruptions in healthcare access.Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Asma
/
COVID-19
Tipo de estudio:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Límite:
Adolescent
/
Child
/
Humans
País/Región como asunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Respir Res
Año:
2023
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Estados Unidos