Decrease in hospital admissions for respiratory diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide claims study

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Authors: Kyungmin Huh ; Young-Eun Kim ; Wonjun Ji ; Dong Wook Kim ; Eun-Joo Lee ; Jong-Hun Kim ; Ji-Man Kang ; Jaehun Jung

MeSH: Administrative Claims, Healthcare / statistics & numerical data ; Asthma / epidemiology* ; COVID-19 / prevention & control* ; Humans ; Influenza, Human / epidemiology* ; Patient Admission / statistics & numerical data* ; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / epidemiology* ; Republic of Korea / epidemiology ; Retrospective Studies ; SARS-CoV-2

Abstract: Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) have been widely implemented to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. We assessed the effect of NPIs on hospitalisations for pneumonia, influenza, COPD and asthma. This retrospective, ecological study compared the weekly incidence of hospitalisation for four respiratory conditions before (January 2016-January 2020) and during (February-July 2020) the implementation of NPI against COVID-19. Hospitalisations for all four respiratory conditions decreased substantially during the intervention period. The cumulative incidence of admissions for COPD and asthma was 58% and 48% of the mean incidence during the 4 preceding years, respectively.