For a study, researchers wanted to determine how the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) quarantine affected baseline health, medication use, health anxiety, and healthcare use in pediatric patients with the aerodigestive disease, and to look for any links between commonly prescribed medications and the risk of COVID-19 illness. Patients attending person to pediatric neurogastroenterology clinics between July 2020 and March 2021 were studied prospectively.
About 71.3% of the 202 recruited patients were seen in the center of the aerodigestive disorder, and 28.7% were seen in the functional abdominal pain (FAP)/motility clinic. During quarantine, 25.1% of all patients reported improved overall health; patients with aerodigestive illness (35.3%) reported greater rates of improved overall health than patients with FAP/motility problems (3.6%, P=.0001). Aerodigestive illness patients experienced fewer airway symptoms (P<.05) and used less medicine during quarantine (inhaled steroids, P<.05, and albuterol, P<.05). Despite objective improvement, there was considerable health-related distress, with higher anxiety levels reported during and after quarantine (P<.05), but no difference between patient groups (P>.11). During quarantine, patients continued to have access to healthcare. In all, 28.7% of patients were seen in the emergency room (FAP patients more than aerodigestive illness patients, P=.02), and 19.8% were hospitalized. COVID-19 testing was completed on 58.4% of patients, with 2.0% (n=4) of the whole cohort showing positive.
Despite the heightened health-related worry, patients with aerodigestive illness ameliorated their airway symptoms and required fewer drugs during the epidemic. Despite the difficulties of receiving treatment as a result of the broad lockdown, all patient groups continued to receive care.
Reference:www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(21)01228-2/fulltext
