Impact of the COVID-19 on asthma control among children: A systematic review

Abstract

In December 2019, the current outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was reported in Wuhan, China. Asthmatic patients are thought to be more vulnerable to the more severe form of SARS-CoV-2 infection due to their weakened immune systems and increased risk of respiratory exacerbation when infected with respiratory viruses; however, there is little evidence to support this theory. The objective of this systematic review is to assess the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown during the pandemic on asthma management outcome measures among children and adolescents. To conduct the search, we used five bibliographic databases. The results were limited to those articles published between December 2019 and February 2022, selecting only articles published in English that included the study population (children aged 0–18 years). All study designs were considered. Independent assessments of the included studies’ quality were made and reported. Among the 945 results of the bibliographic search, only 21 articles were found to fit our eligibility criteria We organized the results from the studies according to the effect of the lockdown at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic on common outcomes, including the Pediatric Emergency Department Visits, hospitalization rates of pediatric asthmatic patients during the pandemic, asthma control, asthma exacerbations, psychological effects on patients, and caregivers’ concerns. The management of pediatric asthma improved more during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic lockdown than in previous years.