Decrease in hospital admissions for respiratory diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide claims study
Kyungmin Huh, Young‐Eun Kim, Wonjun Ji, Dong Wook Kim, Eun Joo Lee, Jong‐Hun Kim, Ji‐Man Kang, Jaehun Jung
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.