Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Apr;57(4):848-856.
doi: 10.1002/ppul.25822. Epub 2022 Jan 20.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on respiratory morbidity during infancy: A birth-cohort study

Nataly Rosenfeld  1   2 , Avigdor Mandelberg  2   3 , Ilan Dalal  1   2 , Diana Tasher  2   4 , Alma Kamar  1   2 , Michael Schnapper  1   2 , Keren Armoni Domany  2   3
Affiliations

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on respiratory morbidity during infancy: A birth-cohort study

Nataly Rosenfeld et al. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2022 Apr.

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the incidence of wheezing and overall respiratory morbidity in healthy infants born during the first peak of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, compared with infants born during the preceding year.

Methods: This was a single-center retrospective birth cohort study to compare a cohort of children born between February and March 2020 (COVID-19 group) to a control group of children born between February and March 2019 (pre-COVID-19 group). At 1 year of age, we collected respiratory data using parental and telephone questionnaires.

Primary outcome: wheezing incidence and/or bronchodilator use.

Secondary outcomes: recurrent wheezing, emergency-room visits, hospital admissions, pneumonia diagnosis, and admissions due to lower-respiratory-tract-infections (LRTI). We included the following covariate risk factors in the logistic regression models; atopy, daycare attendance, breastmilk feeding, parental smoking, C-section, siblings, and gestational age.

Results: We enrolled 588 infants, 294 in each group (48% males). Demographic, perinatal, and atopic characteristics were similar between the groups. Compared to the pre-COVID-19 group, infants born during the COVID-19 period were significantly less likely to report wheezing and/or bronchodilator use (adjusted-odds ratio [OR], 0.4; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.28-0.59), systemic steroid use, (adjusted-OR, 0.47; 95% CI 0.24-0.91), emergency-room visits (adjusted-OR, 0.36; 95% CI 0.17-0.72), LRTI admissions (adjusted-OR, 0.2; 95% CI 0.05-0.74), or pneumonia diagnosis (adjusted-OR, 0.22; 95% CI 0.09-0.53).

Conclusions: This study investigated wheezing and respiratory morbidity over the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in infants born during the first peak of COVID-19. The study demonstrated a significant decrease in most aspects of respiratory morbidity. A longitudinal follow-up study to explore the subsequent impact of these findings is warranted.

Keywords: environmental exposure; lockdown; respiratory viral infections.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Vissing NH, Chawes BL, Rasmussen MA, Bisgaard H. Epidemiology and risk factors of infection in early childhood. Pediatrics. 2018;141(6):e20170933. doi:10.1542/peds.2017-0933
    1. Griffin MR, Walker FJ, Iwane MK, Weinberg GA, Staat MA, Erdman DD. New Vaccine Surveillance Network Study Group. Epidemiology of respiratory infections in young children: insights from the new vaccine surveillance network. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2004;23(11 Suppl):S188-S192. doi:10.1097/01.inf.0000144660.53024.64
    1. Martinez FD, Wright AL, Taussig LM, Holberg CJ, Halonen M, Morgan WJ. Asthma and wheezing in the first six years of life. The Group Health Medical Associates. N Engl J Med. 1995;332(3):133-138. doi:10.1056/NEJM199501193320301
    1. Taussig LM, Wright AL, Holberg CJ, Halonen M, Morgan WJ, Martinez FD. Tucson Children's Respiratory Study: 1980 to present. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2003;111(4):661-676. doi:10.1067/mai.2003.162
    1. Alvarez-Alvarez I, Niu H, Guillen-Grima F, Aguinaga-Ontoso I. Meta-analysis of prevalence of wheezing and recurrent wheezing in infants. Allergol Immunopathol (Madr). 2018;46(3):210-217. doi:10.1016/j.aller.2016.08.011

LinkOut - more resources