Impact of lockdowns on paediatric asthma hospital presentations over three waves of COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on paediatric asthma, the most common chronic condition of childhood, in Australia remains unknown. In a multicentre study, we examined the impact of COVID-19 on paediatric asthma in New South Wales Australia. <b>Methods:</b> Time series analysis was performed to determine trends in asthma hospital presentations in children aged 2-17 years in pre-pandemic (Jan 2015-Dec 2019) and COVID-19 pandemic years (Jan 2020-August 2021) using emergency department and hospital admission datasets from two large tertiary paediatric hospitals. <b>Results:</b> In the pre-pandemic years there were in total 492,863 hospital presentations in children aged 2-17 years, of these 13,160 (2.67%) were due to asthma and in pandemic years there were 163,521 hospital presentations of which 3,364 (2.05%) were due to asthma. We observed a significant decrease in asthma hospital presentations during lockdown periods of COVID-19 pandemic including April (68.85%), May (69.46%) and December (49.00%) of 2020 and August 2021 (66.59%) compared to pre-pandemic predictions. The reduction in asthma hospital presentation in April-May of 2020 and August 2021 was observed across all the age-groups excluding children aged 2-5 years. <b>Conclusion:</b> While this decline may be associated with reduced exposure to outdoor environmental factors from restricted movement due to lockdowns, such an approach is not feasible or sustainable in the absence of an infectious disease outbreak. Therefore further research to determine the positive factors associated with this observed pattern will help develop strategies to build a resilient health system.