Patients
Pediatric patients aged 2-18 years that presented to the ED during one of the selected time periods for asthma related symptoms (e.g. shortness of breath, wheezing, tachypnea), and were treated during the visit with anti-asthmatic medications, were included in the study. Using electronic health record data, we collected the parameters for each patient, including relevant medical history and medications. Data collected included: demographic data, chronic diagnoses, medications prescribed, vital signs on admission, radiological findings, treatment at the ED, triage acuity during presentation according to Canadian Triage Assessment Score12, pediatric ward or pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admissions and length of hospitalization stay (LOS). The study received the approval of the institutional ethics committee (No. 184-20).
Our primary outcome was number of visits to the ED for asthma related symptoms during 2020A, 2020B and 2020C, in comparison to 2019A, 2019B and 2019C. Our secondary outcomes were clinical severity parameters during the visits, indicating by vital signs, radiology findings, rate of hospitalizations, rate of hospitalizations in PICU, LOS and LOS in the PICU. We hypothesized significantly fewer visits during lockdown, with higher severity parameters. We expected increase in ED visits after the lockdown, similar to the ”September pandemic”, after summer vacation8.