Department of Pediatrics, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, São Paulo, Brazil.
PLoS One. 2020 Dec 11;15(12):e0243694. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243694. eCollection 2020.
Respiratory tract diseases are the major cause of morbidity and mortality in children under the age of 5 years, constituting the highest rate of hospitalization in this age group.
To determine the prevalence of hospitalizations for respiratory diseases in childhood in the last 5 years and to assess the impact of social isolation due to COVID-19 on the seasonal behavior of these diseases.
A cross-sectional clinical study was carried out, with a survey of all patients aged 0 to 17 years who were admitted with a diagnosis of respiratory diseases between January 2015 and July 2020. The database was delivered to the researchers anonymized. The variables used for analysis were date of admission, date of discharge, length of stay, age, sex and diagnosis. In order to make the analysis possible, the diagnoses were grouped into upper respiratory infection (URI), asthma / bronchitis, bronchiolitis and pneumonia.
2236 admissions were included in the study. Children under 5 years old account for 81% of hospitalizations for respiratory disease in our population. In the adjusted model, an average reduction of 38 hospitalizations was observed in the period of social isolation (coefficient: -37.66; 95% CI (- 68.17; -7.15); p = 0.016).
The social isolation measures adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically interfered with the seasonality of childhood respiratory diseases. This was reflected in the unexpected reduction in the number of hospitalizations in the pediatric population during this period.
呼吸道疾病是导致 5 岁以下儿童发病和死亡的主要原因，也是该年龄段住院率最高的疾病。
确定过去 5 年儿童呼吸道疾病住院的患病率，并评估 COVID-19 导致的社交隔离对这些疾病季节性的影响。
开展了一项横断面临床研究，对 2015 年 1 月至 2020 年 7 月期间因诊断为呼吸道疾病而入院的所有 0 至 17 岁患者进行了调查。数据库匿名交付给研究人员。用于分析的变量包括入院日期、出院日期、住院时间、年龄、性别和诊断。为了进行分析，将诊断分为上呼吸道感染（URI）、哮喘/支气管炎、细支气管炎和肺炎。
共纳入 2236 例住院患者。5 岁以下儿童占我院人群呼吸道疾病住院的 81%。在调整后的模型中，社交隔离期间观察到平均住院人数减少 38 例（系数：-37.66；95%CI（-68.17；-7.15）；p=0.016）。
COVID-19 大流行期间采取的社交隔离措施极大地干扰了儿童呼吸道疾病的季节性。这反映在儿科人群在此期间住院人数的意外减少。
