Evaluation of health status, problems and deficiencies of children with asthma in the first 12 months of COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Background: COVID-19 pandemic is certainly the biggest health challenge in the world today. Since the beginning of this pandemic, the severity of the disease has been associated with chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension. Given that asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases of childhood that affects the respiratory system which is the main and important target of COVID-19, it was necessary to study and determine the clinical course and the effect of COVID-19 on different aspects of asthmatic patients' lives. Method(s) In this study, which is a cross-sectional study, patients' information was collected by a questionnaire in the form of a telephone interview with the parents of children with asthma which registered in the database of the Asthma and Allergy Clinic. The sample size of this study included 200 patients with asthma under the age of 18 (129 boys and 71 girls). When collecting patient information, due to the fact that more than 12 months have passed since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran, patient information was collected for the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Result(s) Among the 200 asthmatic patients studied, 45 patients (22.5%) suspected COVID-19. Of these, 11 patients (24.4% of suspected patients) underwent diagnostic PCR test. Among these tests, the result of 10 tests (90.9% of the total tests) was positive. Also, 101 patients (50.5%), at least one of their parents had COVID-19. 189 patients (94.5%) evaluated their asthma status better than last year and out of 200 patients, only 31 patients (15.5%) were treated for their asthma with the highest share of Salbutamol (96.8%), Montelukast (64.5%) and inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) (54.8%). 41 patients (20.5%) had referred to medical centers at least once in the first year of COVID-19 pandemic, of which 31.7% (13 patients) had an asthma attack. Among the total patients, 20 patients (10%) had received the influenza vaccine in the last year (1399). Patients' ACT score in 159 patients aged 4-11 years with a mean score of 25.55 +/- 2.27 and 40 patients aged 12-18 years with a mean score of 23.28 +/- 3.31 were calculated, which was in the range of well controlled. Average score of parental stress and anxiety (on a scale of 0 to 10), It was 5.93 +/- 2.82. Conclusion(s) The results of this study generally showed an improvement in asthma control status among children with asthma during the first year of COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the improvement in control of asthma in most of the children studied, the presence of stress and anxiety caused by COVID-19 in children and their parents was significant. To reduce it, it is necessary to plan and take preventive actions.