The health measures adopted in 2020 and 2021 to protect the population from COVID-19 had the side effect of cutting emergency room visits by half for children with asthma, found researchers in Montreal.
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To arrive at this finding, the researchers compiled all admissions of children for cases of asthma at Sainte-Justine Hospital and at the Children’s General Hospital between January 1, 2017 and June 30, 2021. They have accumulated 22,746 visits, of which only 3,338 from April 1, 2020, at the start of the pandemic.
This data allowed them to determine that the number of admissions for asthma cases fell by 47% in these two hospitals during the first year and a quarter of the pandemic.
In the eyes of scientists, several factors can explain this change, the first of which is social distancing.
“Public health measures have likely reduced the transmission of other respiratory viruses, which are common triggers of asthma attacks”, is it noted in the study published by the “Journal of the Canadian Medical Association”. .
“Additionally, a decrease in exposure to air pollution, a trigger for asthma attacks, may also have contributed to the decrease in the number of asthma attacks,” the authors continued, noting that the In particular, the level of pollution had decreased by 10% in Montreal between March and April 2020, when the lives of many citizens had been put on hold by the government and telework became widespread.
The researchers also believe that families have better respected the medication protocols for their children with asthma, in order to avoid any risk of ending up in the emergency room in the midst of a pandemic.
Society would benefit from learning from the measures implemented to better protect asthmatic children, believe the researchers.
“Although some measures have been exceptional (such as the closure of schools), others can be easily implemented and are socially acceptable, such as wearing a mask in public spaces when someone is symptomatic to limit the transmission of respiratory viruses . This might lead to a decrease in the number of asthma attacks,” the research authors concluded.