Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on children with asthma in Jordan: a parental questionnaire

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of a 10-week lockdown on children with asthma aged 4-17 years in terms of presentations to the emergency department (ED), frequency of admissions, compliance with medications and changes in pulmonary function testing results. DESIGN AND SETTING: A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study using Google Forms to collect parents' and caregivers' responses after they consented to participation. RESULTS: A total of 374 parents/caregivers were contacted and 297 (79%) responded. The majority of the children were (188 or 63%) and 49.8% were aged 7-12 years. More than half of the participants (194 or 65%) reported improved compliance with medications and spacer use. There was a significant reduction in the number of presentations to the ED from 137 to 80 and admissions to hospital from 56 to 24 during the 10-week lockdown period compared with the same time period in the previous year (p<=0.0001). Around 25% of the participants used telemedicine by phone and social media applications for communication with their treating physician and 59 (80%) described it as easy and smooth. CONCLUSION: The national lockdown in Jordan due to the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a fall in emergency presentations and hospital admissions for acute asthma exacerbations. Parental responses indicate that fears focused around COVID-19 were associated with enhanced compliance with use preventer medications during the lockdown.