Background:

Covid-19 pandemic had an important impact on health care, on the approach to respiratory diseases. Aim: To characterize asthmatics patients hospitalized in a tertiary hospital during Covid-19 pandemic.

Methods:

Retrospective analysis of the clinical data of the patients hospitalized in our Hospital for asthma exacerbation during the first 12 months of Covid-19 pandemic (from March 2020 to February 2021) compared with the corresponding period before the pandemic (from March 2019 to February 2020). In order to identify admitted patients for asthma, we used ICD9 and ICD10 asthma. diagnostic codes attributed to the main diagnosis.

Results:

A total of 56 hospitalizations were identified, corresponding to 53 patients, 81.1% females and 18.9% males, with a mean age of 47.3 years [± 20.8 years; 8-93 years]. Ten cases were excluded (missing information, in three, and other reason for admission, in seven). We identified 17 hospitalizations in the considered pandemic period and 39 in the pre-pandemic period, representing a significant reduction in asthma hospitalization during covid-19 pandemic (30.4% vs 69.6%, p < 0.001). When comparing the main characteristics between the two groups (pandemic vs pre-pandemic), namely age (47.1 vs 47.3 years, p=0.972), gender (82.4% vs 79.5% female, p=1.0), atopy (50.0% vs 64.5%, p=0.366), hospitalization length (5.8 days vs 5.7 days, p=0.9), previous therapy (37.5% vs 30.8% only SABA/LABA, p=0.754), therapy after discharge (p=0.842) or exacerbation trigger, no statistical differences were found. In both groups, viral respiratory tract infection was the main trigger for asthma exacerbation. In neither case SARS-CoV-2 infection was identified.

Conclusion:

There was a significant decrease in asthma hospitalizations in the first 12 months of the Covid-19 pandemic, compared to the same period pre-pandemic. However, no statistically significant differences were found between the characteristics of hospitalized patients in the two periods.

        · abstract in Portuguese     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )