Umeå University's logo

umu.sePublications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Respiratory morbidity before and during the COVID-19 pandemic from birth to 18 months in a Swedish birth cohort
Umeå University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences, Paediatrics.
Umeå University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine.
Umeå University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Nursing. Umeå University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences, Obstetrics and Gynecology. Judith Lumley Centre, School of Nursing and Midwifery, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Australia.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3391-2308
Umeå University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences, Paediatrics.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3606-3797
Show others and affiliations
2025 (English)In: Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, ISSN 0091-6749, E-ISSN 1097-6825Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

Background: Respiratory infections in early life are an identified risk factor for asthma. We hypothesized that infection-prevention measures during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic influenced the risk of respiratory morbidity and aeroallergen sensitization in early childhood. Objective: We compared respiratory morbidity and aeroallergen sensitization in children born before and during the pandemic. Methods: We compared a COVID-19 category (exposed children; n = 1661) to a pre–COVID-19 category (nonexposed children; n = 1676) by using data from the prospective population-based NorthPop Birth Cohort study in Sweden. Data on respiratory morbidity and concomitant medication were retrieved from national registers. Prospectively collected data on respiratory morbidity using web-based questionnaires at 9 and 18 months of age were applied. At age 18 months, serum IgE levels to aeroallergens were determined (n = 1702). Results: The risk of developing any respiratory tract infection (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 0.33 [95% CI, 0.26-0.42]), bronchitis (aOR = 0.50 [95% CI, 0.27-0.95]) and croup (aOR = 0.59 [95% CI, 0.37-0.94]) were decreased in the COVID-19 category. The risk of wheeze in the first 9 months was lower in the COVID-19 category (aOR = 0.70 [95% CI, 0.55-0.89]). There were also fewer prescriptions of antibiotics in the COVID-19 category. The prevalence of aeroallergen sensitization was similar between categories. Conclusion: Children born during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated significantly decreased risks of respiratory infections and prescribed antibiotics until 18 months of age compared to children born before the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether this will affect the risk of developing asthma in childhood is being followed.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2025.
Keywords [en]
Asthma, birth cohort, COVID-19, epidemiology, hygiene, infancy, NorthPop, respiratory infections, sensitization, wheeze
National Category
Epidemiology Respiratory Medicine and Allergy Pediatrics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-234871DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2024.12.1080PubMedID: 39734033Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85215849975OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-234871DiVA, id: diva2:1935532
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2018-02642Swedish Research Council, 2021-01637Swedish Heart Lung Foundation, 2018-0641Ekhaga Foundation, 2018-40Region Västerbotten, RV 832 441Region Västerbotten, RV 967 569Available from: 2025-02-07 Created: 2025-02-07 Last updated: 2025-02-07

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(1107 kB)30 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 1107 kBChecksum SHA-512
e69e990931f2d60de0ecd537b125d0c09e1a75eec94bc2859ead9c817a951f8a9418a7403b87fd75e75c7351b2b0faf5294dd369c10c7cdb9fdeff983eca27e0
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full textPubMedScopus

Authority records

Kelderer, FannyGranåsen, GabrielHolmlund, SophiaSilfverdal, Sven-ArneDomellöf, MagnusMogren, IngridWest, Christina E.

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Kelderer, FannyGranåsen, GabrielHolmlund, SophiaSilfverdal, Sven-ArneDomellöf, MagnusMogren, IngridWest, Christina E.
By organisation
PaediatricsDepartment of Public Health and Clinical MedicineDepartment of NursingObstetrics and Gynecology
In the same journal
Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology
EpidemiologyRespiratory Medicine and AllergyPediatrics

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 32 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn
Total: 290 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf