Healthcare utilization in Canadian children and young adults with asthma during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT

Literature is limited regarding the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on health services use in younger Canadian populations with asthma. We utilized health administrative databases from January 2019-December 2021 for a population-based cross-sectional study to identify Ontario residents 0-25 years old with physician-diagnosed asthma and calculate rates of healthcare use. Multivariable negative binomial regression analysis was used to adjust for confounders. We included 716,690 children and young adults ≤25 years. There was a sharp increase of ICS and SABA prescription rates at the start of the pandemic (March 2020) of 61.7% and 54.6%, respectively. Monthly virtual physician visit rates increased from zero to 0.23 per 100 asthma population during the pandemic. After adjusting for potential confounders, rate ratios (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) showed that the pandemic was associated with significant decrease in hospital admissions (RR = 0.21, 95% CI 0.18-0.24), emergency department visits (RR = 0.35, 95% CI 0.34-0.37), and physician visits (RR = 0.61, 95% CI 0.60-0.61). ICS and SABA prescriptions filled also significantly decreased during the pandemic (RR = 0.58, 95% CI 0.57-0.60 and RR = 0.47, 95% CI 0.46-0.48, respectively). This Canadian population-based asthma study demonstrated a dramatic decline in physician and emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and medication prescriptions filled during the COVID-19 pandemic. An extensive evaluation of the factors contributing to an 80% reduction in the risk of hospitalization may inform post-pandemic asthma management.