Rationale
Whether asthma constitutes a risk factor for coronavirus diseaseâ2019 (COVIDâ19) is unclear. Here, we aimed to assess whether asthma, the most common chronic disease in children, is associated with higher COVIDâ19 risk or severity in pediatric populations.
Methods
We performed a systematic literature search in three stages: first, we reviewed PubMed, EMBASE, and CINAHL for systematic reviews of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSâCoVâ2) and COVIDâ19 in pediatric populations, and reviewed their primary articles; second, we searched PubMed for studies on COVIDâ19 or SARSâCoVâ2 and asthma/wheeze, and evaluated whether the resulting studies included pediatric populations; third, we repeated the second search in http://BioRxiv.org and http://MedRxiv.org to find preâprints that may have information on pediatric asthma.
Results
In the first search, eight systematic reviews were found, of which five were done in pediatric populations; none of the 67 primary studies included data on pediatric asthma as a comorbidity for COVIDâ19. In the second search, we found 34 results in PubMed, of which five reported asthma in adults, but none included data on children. In the third search, 25 preâprints in MedRxiv included data on asthma, but none on children. We found one report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stating that 40/345 (~11.5%) children with data on chronic conditions had âchronic lung diseases including asthma,â and one from a tertiary hospital in New York that reported asthma in 11/46 (~23.9%) children hospitalized for COVIDâ19.
Conclusion
There is scarcely any data on whether childhood asthma (or other pediatric respiratory diseases) constitute risk factors for SARSâCoVâ2 infection or COVIDâ19 severity. Studies are needed that go beyond counting the number of cases in the pediatric age range.