Prior COVID-19 infection does not impact allergic asthma severity in children

Key takeaways:

• Perennial asthma prevalence was similar among children with and without a 2020 COVID-19 infection after 3 years.
• Use of rescue medication and oral corticosteroids did not differ between the groups.

WASHINGTON — Among children with allergic asthma, disease severity between those with vs. without a COVID-19 infection in 2020 was similar when assessed after 3 years, according to study results.

These data were presented at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Annual Meeting.

Using a cohort of children aged 14 years or younger with allergic asthma, Carlos Blanco-Mota, MD, of the Infanta Leonor University Hospital in Madrid, Spain, and colleagues compared 19 children (median age, 8.6 years; 79% boys) diagnosed with COVID-19 in 2020 with 114 children (median age, 9.53 years; 62% boys) who did not contract COVID-19 to determine if this infection negatively impacts this patient population after 3 years.

Researchers collected information on SARS-CoV-2 infection cohabitants, signs and symptoms, treatment and severity via telephone interviews and data on lung function, asthma treatment and exacerbations in medical appointments following the first wave of COVID-19.

Three comorbidities did not significantly differ between the children with vs. without a past COVID-19 diagnosis: rhino-conjunctivitis, atopic dermatitis and family history of atopy. However, researchers found significantly more children diagnosed with COVID-19 had food allergies than those without COVID-19 (63% vs. 39%; P = .04).

Seasonal asthma was observed in a significantly higher percentage of children without vs. with COVID-19 (76% vs. 53%; P = .048), but perennial asthma prevalence was similar in both groups.

When grouped according to the five steps in the Global Initiative for Asthma guidelines, which are used to determine treatment for asthma based on symptoms, researchers reported no significant differences between the two groups in each step.

Researchers found a similar percentage of COVID-19-infected children and noninfected children in step 1 (47% vs. 45%) and step 2 (26% vs. 37%).

In the COVID-19 infected cohort, 26% of children fell under steps 3 or 4 compared with 16% of children in the noninfected cohort. Step 5 included 3% of noninfected children and 0% of infected children.

Further, the infected and noninfected cohorts of children had similar use of rescue medication, use of oral corticosteroids, increase of symptoms and visits/admissions to an emergency unit, according to researchers.

“In our study, COVID-19 infection was not associated with a worse clinical course of asthma,” Blanco-Mota and colleagues wrote.

References:

• Blanco-Mota C, et al. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2024;doi:10.1016/j.jaci.2023.11.097.
• Global strategy for asthma management and prevention (2023 update). https://ginasthma.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/GINA-2023-Full-report-23_07_06-WMS.pdf. Updated July 2023. Accessed Feb. 20, 2024.