The association between the stringency of COVID-19 public health mitigation strategies and pediatric asthma-related hospitalizations in Canada: an ecological study over 2 years

IF 3.5 3区医学 Q2 CARDIAC & CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEMS

Respiratory medicine Pub Date : 2025-04-26 DOI:10.1016/j.rmed.2025.108125

Sze Man Tse , Abdoul Kabirou Babatounde , Olivier Drouin , Dhenuka Radhakrishnan , Teresa To

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objective

The drastic decrease in pediatric asthma exacerbations at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic was assumed to be secondary to public health mitigation measures. However, this association has not been formally evaluated. We examined the correlation between the incidence of pediatric asthma hospitalizations in Canada and the stringency index (SI), a measure of the severity of public health mitigation measures, during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design

Ecological study from March 1st, 2020 to March 31st, 2022. Hospitalization data were obtained from a pan-Canadian inpatient administrative database and the SI was obtained from the Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation. We included children aged 1–17 years who were hospitalized for asthma. The association between the monthly number of asthma-related hospitalizations and the monthly average SI was evaluated using the Pearson correlation coefficient and negative binomial regression models.

Results

A total of 11,842 children were hospitalized for asthma. The monthly number of asthma-related hospitalizations was highly correlated with the SI (r = −0.73; 95 % CI -0.87, −0.47) and was the strongest for the initial pandemic period (March–June 2020, r = −0.99; 95 % CI -0.99, −0.82). A surge of hospitalizations was observed starting in May 2021, which coincided with the relaxation of public health measures.

Conclusion

Using a pan-Canadian database, we demonstrated a strong negative correlation between the number of pediatric asthma-related hospitalizations and the stringency of public health mitigation measures. These findings are relevant for future epidemic and pandemic response strategies and resource allocation.

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加拿大COVID-19公共卫生缓解策略的严格程度与儿童哮喘相关住院之间的关系：一项为期2年的生态学研究

目的：在COVID-19大流行开始时，儿童哮喘发作的急剧减少被认为是次要的公共卫生缓解措施。然而，这种联系尚未得到正式评估。我们研究了在COVID-19大流行的头两年，加拿大儿童哮喘住院发生率与严格指数（SI）之间的相关性，该指数是衡量公共卫生缓解措施严重程度的指标。2020年3月1日至2022年3月31日，设计生态研究。住院数据来自一个泛加拿大住院病人管理数据库，SI来自加拿大联邦卓越中心。我们纳入了因哮喘住院的1-17岁儿童。使用Pearson相关系数和负二项回归模型评估每月哮喘相关住院次数与月平均SI之间的关系。结果共有11842名儿童因哮喘住院。每月哮喘相关住院次数与SI高度相关(r = - 0.73；95% CI为-0.87,- 0.47)，并且在大流行初期(2020年3月至6月，r = - 0.99；95% ci -0.99, - 0.82)。从2021年5月开始，观察到住院人数激增，与此同时，公共卫生措施也有所放松。结论使用一个泛加拿大数据库，我们证明了儿童哮喘相关住院人数与公共卫生缓解措施的严格程度之间存在很强的负相关。这些发现与未来的流行病和大流行应对战略和资源分配有关。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Respiratory medicine 医学-呼吸系统

CiteScore

7.50

自引率

0.00%

发文量

199

审稿时长

38 days

期刊介绍： Respiratory Medicine is an internationally-renowned journal devoted to the rapid publication of clinically-relevant respiratory medicine research. It combines cutting-edge original research with state-of-the-art reviews dealing with all aspects of respiratory diseases and therapeutic interventions. Topics include adult and paediatric medicine, epidemiology, immunology and cell biology, physiology, occupational disorders, and the role of allergens and pollutants. Respiratory Medicine is increasingly the journal of choice for publication of phased trial work, commenting on effectiveness, dosage and methods of action.