No abstract

Objectives: To report changes in adult hospital admission rates for acute ENT infections following the introduction of Covid-19-related physical interventions such as hand washing, use of face mask and social distancing of 2-metres in the United Kingdom. Design: Retrospective cohort study comparing a one-year period after the introduction of Covid-related physical interventions (2020-21) with a one-year period before this (2019-20). Settings: 3 UK secondary care ENT departments Participants: Adult patients admitted with acute tonsillitis, peritonsillar abscess, epiglottitis, glandular fever, peri-orbital cellulitis, acute otitis media, acute mastoiditis, retropharyngeal abscess and parapharyngeal abscess. Main outcome measures: Number of adult hospital admissions Results: In total there were significantly fewer admissions for ENT infections (n=1073, 57.56%, p<0.001; RR 2.36, 95% CI [2.17, 2.56]) in the 2020-2021 period than in the 2019-2020 period. There were significant reductions in admissions for tonsillitis (64.4%; p<0.001), peritonsillar abscess (60.68%; p<0.001), epiglottitis (66.67%; p<0.001), glandular fever (38.79%; p=0.001), acute otitis media (26.85%; p=0.01) and retropharyngeal and/or parapharyngeal abscesses (45.45%; p=0.04) Conclusion: Our study demonstrates a sizeable reduction in adult admissions for ENT infections since the introduction of Covid-19-related physical interventions. There is evidence to support the use of physical interventions in the prevention of viral transmission of respiratory disease. Preventing ENT infections requiring admission through simple physical interventions could be of great benefit to the quality of life of patients and economical benefit to healthcare systems.