Volume 56, Issue 7 pp. 1951-1956
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Unexpected decline in pediatric asthma morbidity during the coronavirus pandemic

Lisa Ulrich MD

Corresponding Author

Lisa Ulrich MD

Section of Pulmonary Medicine, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA

Department of Pediatrics, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio, USA

Correspondence Lisa Ulrich, MD, Section of Pulmonary Medicine, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, 700 Children's Dr, Columbus, Ohio, USA.

Email: [email protected]

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Charlie Macias MHA

Charlie Macias MHA

Quality Improvement Services, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA

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Ashish George DO

Ashish George DO

Section of Pulmonary Medicine, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA

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Shasha Bai PhD

Shasha Bai PhD

Biostatistics Resource at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA

Department of Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Ohio, USA

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Elizabeth Allen MD

Elizabeth Allen MD

Section of Pulmonary Medicine, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA

Department of Pediatrics, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio, USA

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First published: 13 April 2021
Citations: 26

Abstract

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic profoundly impacted health care utilization. We evaluated asthma-related emergency department (ED) and inpatient health care utilization by a county-specific Medicaid population, ages 2–18, during the COVID-19 pandemic and compared it to utilization from a 3-year average including 2017–2019. All-cause ED utilization and asthma medication fill rates were evaluated during the same timeframes. Relative to the 2017–2019 3-year average, cumulative asthma-related ED visits from January through June decreased by 45.8% (p = .03) and inpatient admission rates decreased by 50.5% (p = .03). The decline in asthma-related ED utilization was greater than the reduction of overall ED use during the same time period, suggesting that the decline involved factors specific to asthma and was not due solely to avoidance of health care facilities. Fill rates for asthma controller medications decreased during this time (p = .03) and quick relief medication fill rates had no significant change (p = .31). Multiple factors may have contributed to the decrease in acute asthma health care visits. Locally, decreased air pollution and viral exposures coincided with the “Stay-at-home” order in Ohio, and increased utilization of telehealth for assessment during exacerbations may have impacted outcomes. Identification of the cause of the decline in visit rates could spur new interventions to limit the need for ED and inpatient visits for asthma patients, leading to both economic and health-associated benefits.

CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

The authors declare that there are no conflict of interests.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.