New study shows that children with a poorly controlled asthma are 3 to 6 times more likely to be hospitalised due to COVID-19, compared to children with no asthma.
Catching the COVID-19 virus can be deadly serious for children with uncontrolled asthma, a new study found. The study was published earlier this week, in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine.
In the study, children with “uncontrolled asthma” were defined as those who have been admitted to a hospital with asthma or prescribed two or more courses of oral steroids within the past two years.
The UK-based study was based on two large datasets. First, researchers analysed data from 752,867 children, recorded between March 1, 2020, and July 27, 2021. These children were 5-17 years old and had been diagnosed with asthma. From this group, the study found that 4,339 children were positive for COVID-19, and among these, 1.5% had to be admitted to the hospital.
A second group of children studied involved 689,404 children without asthma. Among this group 40,231 had COVID-19, and 0.9% had to be hospitalised.
After adjusting for factors such as age, sex, socioeconomic status, other illnesses or conditions, and previous non-asthma related hospital admissions, researchers found that children with an uncontrolled asthma were six times more likely to be admitted to hospital with COVID-19, compared to children without asthma. Likewise, children who had recently been prescribed oral steroids were found to have three times higher risk of hospital admission, compared to children without asthma.
According to Dr Ting Shi, research fellow at the University of Edinburgh and co-author of the study, their findings hint at the importance of keeping track of children with asthma, particularly in places affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Although COVID-19 tends to affect children less severely than adults, our findings underscore the importance of carefully monitoring these children if they become infected with COVID-19 and ensuring that children take their preventive inhalers regularly, go for asthma reviews, and have an up-to-date asthma treatment action plan. More research is needed to investigate the underlying mechanisms that predispose children to these increased risks of hospital admission with covid-19,” Dr Shi said.