Admissions for Bronchiolitis at Children's Hospitals Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

IMPORTANCE

The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with a transient decrease in bronchiolitis hospitalizations compared with prepandemic patterns, but current effects remain unknown.

OBJECTIVE

To analyze changes in patterns of bronchiolitis admissions at US children's hospitals during the 2020-2023 bronchiolitis seasons compared with the 2010-2019 seasons.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This retrospective cross-sectional study used data from 41 US children's hospitals in the Pediatric Health Information System database. Bronchiolitis has winter-predominant seasonality, so hospitalizations were grouped according to bronchiolitis season (from July through June). This study included all patients aged younger than 2 years admitted with a diagnosis of bronchiolitis between July 1, 2010, and June 30, 2023. Bronchiolitis seasons from July through June between 2010-2011 and 2019-2020 were classified as the prepandemic era, and seasons between 2020-2021 and 2022-2023 were classified as the pandemic era. Data analysis was performed from July 1, 2010, through June 30, 2023.

EXPOSURES

Admission date.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES

The primary outcome was number of hospitalizations for bronchiolitis by season and month. Monthly admission counts from the prepandemic era were transformed into time series and used to train seasonal ensemble forecasting models. Forecasts were compared to monthly admissions during the pandemic era.

RESULTS

In this study, there were 400 801 bronchiolitis admissions among 349 609 patients between July 1, 2010, and June 30, 2023. The median patient age was 6 (IQR, 2-12) months; 58.7% were boys and 43.7% were White. Hospitalizations increased gradually during the prepandemic era (median, 29 309 [IQR, 26 196-34 157]), decreased 69.2% (n = 9030) in the 2020-2021 season, and increased 75.3% (n = 51 397) in the 2022-2023 season. Patients in the pandemic era were older than those in the prepandemic era (median, 7 [IQR, 3-14] vs 6 [2-12] months; P < .001). Intensive care unit (ICU) admissions increased from 32.2% (96 245 of 298 535) in the prepandemic era to 36.7% (37 516 of 102 266) in the pandemic era (P < .001). The seasonality of bronchiolitis admissions changed during the pandemic era. Admissions peaked in August 2021 (actual 5036 vs 943 [95% CI, 0-2491] forecasted) and November 2022 (actual 10 120 vs 5268 [95% CI, 3425-7419] forecasted). These findings were unchanged in sensitivity analyses excluding children with complex chronic conditions and excluding repeat admissions. In a sensitivity analysis including all viral lower respiratory tract infections in children aged younger than 5 years, there were 66 767 admissions in 2022-2023 vs 35 623 (31 301-41 002) in the prepandemic era, with the largest increase in children aged 24 to 59 months.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

The findings of this cross-sectional study suggest that bronchiolitis hospitalizations decreased transiently and then increased markedly during the COVID-19 pandemic era. Patients admitted during the pandemic era were older and were more likely to be admitted to an ICU. These findings suggest that bronchiolitis seasonality has not yet returned to prepandemic patterns, and US hospitals should prepare for the possibility of atypical timing again in 2023.