Trends in Caregiver-Reported Prevalence and Severity of Pediatric Asthma During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract Introduction: Asthma is one of the most common chronic conditions in pediatric patients and has been increasing in prevalence over the last several decades. Proper diagnosis and treatment of pediatric asthma is important, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, which introduced uncertainty and drastic changes in care. The aim of this study was to understand the trends surrounding pediatric asthma prevalence and severity during the pandemic. Materials and Methods: We used data on children aged 0–17 years from the 2016–2021 National Survey of Children’s Health. Presence and severity of diagnosed asthma were reported by children’s caregivers. Asthma prevalence and severity were analyzed using multivariable logistic regression controlling for a linear measure of survey year and a categorical measure of era (2020–2021 vs. 2016–2019). Results: Based on a sample of 207,972 children, we estimated that 8% of children had been diagnosed with asthma, of whom 34% had moderate or severe asthma. We found no change in asthma prevalence during the pandemic (pandemic era vs. pre-pandemic era odds ratio [OR]: 0.87; 95% confidence intervals [CI]: 0.75, 1.01) and no statistically significant decrease in asthma severity during the pandemic (OR vs. pre-pandemic era: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.61, 1.08). We did not find significant changes in caregiver-reported pediatric asthma prevalence or severity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusions: These data suggest the underlying population-level burden of pediatric asthma has remained constant, despite decreases in asthma-related healthcare use during the pandemic. This implies healthcare systems should prepare for a possible resurgence in pediatric asthma-related healthcare use in the post-pandemic years.