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J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract
. 2020 Jun 16;S2213-2198(20)30599-7.
doi: 10.1016/j.jaip.2020.06.001. Online ahead of print.
Impact of COVID-19 on Pediatric Asthma: Practice Adjustments and Disease Burden
Nikolaos G Papadopoulos 1 , Adnan Custovic 2 , Antoine Deschildre 3 , Alexander G Mathioudakis 4 , Wanda Phipatanakul 5 , Gary Wong 6 , Paraskevi Xepapadaki 7 , Ioana Agache 8 , Leonard Bacharier 9 , Matteo Bonini 10 , Jose A Castro-Rodriguez 11 , Zhimin Chen 12 , Timothy Craig 13 , Francine M Ducharme 14 , Zeinab Awad El-Sayed 15 , Wojciech Feleszko 16 , Alessandro Fiocci 17 , Luis Garcia-Marcos 18 , James E Gern 19 , Anne Goh 20 , Ren? Maximiliano G?mez 21 , Eckard H Hamelmann 22 , Gunilla Hedlin 23 , Elham M Hossny 15 , Tuomas Jartti 24 , Omer Kalayci 25 , Alan Kaplan 26 , Jon Konrandsen 27 , Piotr Kuna 28 , Susanne Lau 29 , Peter Le Souef 30 , Robert F Lemanske 31 , Mika J Makela 32 , M?rio Morais-Almeida 33 , Clare Murray 34 , Karthik Nagaraju 35 , Leyla Namazova-Baranova 36 , Antonio Nieto Garcia 37 , Yusuf Osman 38 , Paulo Mc Pitrez 39 , Petr Pohunek 40 , Cesar Fireth Pozo Beltr?n 41 , Graham C Roberts 42 , Arunas Valiulis 43 , Heather J Zar 44 , PeARL collaborators
Affiliations
- PMID: 32561497
- DOI: 10.1016/j.jaip.2020.06.001
Abstract
Background: It is unclear whether asthma may affect susceptibility or severity of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in children and how pediatric asthma services worldwide have responded to the pandemic.
Objective: To describe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pediatric asthma services and on disease burden in their patients.
Methods: An online survey was sent to members of the Pediatric Asthma in Real Life (PeARL) think-tank and the World Allergy Organization Pediatric Asthma Committee. It included questions on service provision, disease burden and on the clinical course of confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection among children with asthma.
Results: Ninety-one respondents, caring for an estimated population of >133,000 children with asthma, completed the survey. COVID-19 significantly impacted pediatric asthma services: 39% ceased physical appointments, 47% stopped accepting new patients, 75% limited patients visits. Consultations were almost halved to a median of 20 (IQR: 10-25) patients per week. Virtual clinics and helplines were launched in most centers. Better than expected disease control was reported in 20% (10-40%) of patients, while control was negatively affected in only 10% (7.5-12.5%). Adherence also appeared to increase. Only 15 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported among the population; the estimated incidence is not apparently different from the reports of general pediatric cohorts.
Conclusion: Children with asthma do not appear to be disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Outcomes may even have improved, possibly through increased adherence and/or reduced exposures. Clinical services have rapidly responded to the pandemic by limiting and replacing physical appointments with virtual encounters.
Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV2; adherence; asthma; child; control; virus.