Effect of non-pharmacological measures on hospital admissions for
respiratory diseases in children after the return to school activities
during the COVID-19 pandemic
Abstract
The non-pharmacological measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic
implemented in 2020 significantly impacted child admissions for
respiratory diseases. This study aims to evaluate the impact of these
measures on the incidence of child admissions after the resumption of
school activities. Methods: This is a longitudinal study, conducted by
analyzing pediatric hospital admissions data. It included data on
patients diagnosed with bronchiolitis, asthma, or pneumonia. The period
studied was from January to July of 2019, 2020, and 2021. Poisson
regression models with robust variance were used to obtain relative risk
and the respective 95% CI. For statistical significance, p
<0.05 was used. Results: A total of 4024 pediatric admissions
due to the diseases covered were recorded during the period studied. The
reduction in admissions and costs in 2021 compared with 2019 was 56.99
admissions/100,000 children and 56% lower, respectively. Conclusion:
Even during the period of relaxation of the non-pharmacological measures
to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a significant and clinically
important reduction in the number of admissions due to respiratory
diseases in children. The maintenance of the reduction in admissions
indicates that these measures can have a highly important impact on
infant health even after the resumption of school activities.