Asthma and COVID‐19 in children: A systematic review and call for data
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Abstract
Rationale
Whether asthma constitutes a risk factor for coronavirus disease‐2019 (COVID‐19) is unclear. Here, we aimed to assess whether asthma, the most common chronic disease in children, is associated with higher COVID‐19 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 (SARS‐CoV‐2) and COVID‐19 in pediatric populations, and reviewed their primary articles; second, we searched PubMed for studies on COVID‐19 or SARS‐CoV‐2 and asthma/wheeze, and evaluated whether the resulting studies included pediatric populations; third, we repeated the second search in BioRxiv.org and MedRxiv.org to find pre‐prints 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 COVID‐19. 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 pre‐prints 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 “chronic lung diseases including asthma,” and one from a tertiary hospital in New York that reported asthma in 11/46 (~23.9%) children hospitalized for COVID‐19.
Conclusion
There is scarcely any data on whether childhood asthma (or other pediatric respiratory diseases) constitute risk factors for SARS‐CoV‐2 infection or COVID‐19 severity. Studies are needed that go beyond counting the number of cases in the pediatric age range.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.05.04.20090845: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources We performed a systematic literature research in three stages: First, we searched PubMed, EMBASE and CINAHL using the terms “SARS-CoV-2 OR COVID-19” AND “systematic review” AND “children 0-18 years of age” to find systemic reviews on the topic, and then reviewed the primary studies included in those reviews. PubMedsuggested: (PubMed, RRID:SCR_004846)EMBASEsuggested: (EMBASE, RRID:SCR_001650)Third, we repeated search #2 in BioRxiv.org and MedRxiv.org to evaluate whether existing … SciScore for 10.1101/2020.05.04.20090845: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources We performed a systematic literature research in three stages: First, we searched PubMed, EMBASE and CINAHL using the terms “SARS-CoV-2 OR COVID-19” AND “systematic review” AND “children 0-18 years of age” to find systemic reviews on the topic, and then reviewed the primary studies included in those reviews. PubMedsuggested: (PubMed, RRID:SCR_004846)EMBASEsuggested: (EMBASE, RRID:SCR_001650)Third, we repeated search #2 in BioRxiv.org and MedRxiv.org to evaluate whether existing pre-prints may have relevant pediatric asthma information. BioRxivsuggested: (bioRxiv, RRID:SCR_003933)Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
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