Asthma and the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: A Literature Review

Morais‐Almeida, Mário; Pité, Helena; Aguiar, Rita; Ansotegui, Ignacio J.; Bousquet, Jean

doi:10.1159/000509057

Cited by 74 publications

(107 citation statements)

References 64 publications

(84 reference statements)

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“…Asthma primarily affects the respiratory system, and some of the main symptoms of COVID-19 are also respiratory. This fact, along with a relative lack of information (particularly when compared to diabetes or hypertension) on whether asthma can be associated with a worse prognosis of COVID-19 [ 20 ], may partly explain the particularly evident search increase observed for asthma. Another possible explanation concerns the fact that young adults, and especially parents, are particularly active Internet users [ 21 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anomalous asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Google Trends patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic

Sousa‐Pinto

Heffler

Antó³

et al. 2020

Clin Transl Allergy

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Background An increase in online searches on health topics may either mirror epidemiological changes or reflect media coverage. In the context of COVID-19, this is particularly relevant, as COVID-19 symptoms may be mistaken for those of respiratory disease exacerbations. Therefore, we aimed to assess Internet search patterns on asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the context of COVID-19, as compared to searches on other chronic diseases. Methods We retrieved Google Trends (GTs) data on two respiratory (asthma and COPD) and three non-respiratory (diabetes, hypertension, and Crohn’s disease) chronic diseases over the past 5 years (up to May 31, 2020). For 54 countries, and for each disease, we built autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models to predict GTs for 2020 based on 2015–2019 search patterns. In addition, we estimated the proportion of searches in which COVID-19-related terms were used. To assess the potential impact of media coverage on online searches, we assessed whether weekly “asthma” GTs correlated with the number of Google News items on asthma. Results Over the past 5 years, worldwide search volumes for asthma and COPD reached their maximum values in March 2020. Such was not observed for diabetes, hypertension and Crohn’s disease. In 38 (70%) countries, GTs on asthma were higher in March 2020 than the respective maximum predicted values. This compares to 19 countries for COPD, 23 for hypertension, 11 for Crohn’s disease, and 9 for diabetes. Queries with COVID-19-related terms represented up to 47.8% of the monthly searches on asthma, and up to 21.3% of COPD searches. In most of the assessed countries, moderate-strong correlations were observed between “asthma” GTs and the number of news items on asthma. Conclusions During March 2020, there was a peak in searches on asthma and COPD, which was probably mostly driven by media coverage, as suggested by their simultaneity in several countries with different epidemiological situations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anomalous asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Google Trends patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic

Sousa‐Pinto

Heffler

Antó³

et al. 2020

Clin Transl Allergy

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“…Studies from China did not find asthma to be a risk factor for COVID-19 severity [11]. Morais-Almeida et al in their literature review of 29 studies from USA, China, UK, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Switzerland, and Saudi Arabia did not find evidence of asthmatic patients being at high risk for COVID-19 infection [12].…”

Section: Allergic Airway Diseases and Sars-cov-2mentioning

confidence: 95%

ACE2 expression in allergic airway disease may decrease the risk and severity of COVID-19

Shukla

2020

Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol

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The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and presents with respiratory symptoms which can be life threatening in severe cases. At the start of the pandemic, allergy, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were considered as risk factors for COVID-19 as they tend to exacerbate during respiratory viral infections. Recent literature has not shown that airway allergic diseases is a high-risk factor or that it increases the severity of COVID-19. This is due to a decrease in Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) gene expression in the nose and bronchial cells of allergic airway diseases. Conventional asthma treatment includes inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), allergen immunotherapy (AIT), and biologics, and should be continued as they might reduce the risks of asthmatics for coronavirus infection by enhancing antiviral defence and alleviating inflammation. Keywords Allergic rhinitis • Asthma • SARS-CoV-2 • COVID-19 • Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) • Transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2) • Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) • Allergen immunotherapy (AIT)

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“…Asthma is a common pulmonary disease, affecting around 8–9% of the population of the USA [ 6 ]. It is well known that viral infections can lead to exacerbation of asthma [ 7 ]; however, it is still unclear whether asthma leads to an increased susceptibility to COVID-19 or deterioration of clinical outcomes [ 8 ]. In one of the earliest studies in 140 Chinese patients, Zhang et al [ 9 ] reported that allergic diseases and asthma are not risk factors for the development of COVID-19 infection.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Asthma Increase the Mortality of Patients with COVID-19?: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Wang

Chen

et al. 2020

Int Arch Allergy Immunol

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The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to explore the literature and collate data comparing the mortality of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients with and without asthma. The databases PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Google Scholar, and medRxiv.org were searched for studies comparing the clinical outcomes of asthmatic patients with those of nonasthmatic patients diagnosed with COVID-19. Mortality data were summarized using the Mantel-Haenszel OR with 95% CI in a random-effects model. Five retrospective studies met the inclusion criteria. A meta-analysis of data from 744 asthmatic patients and 8,151 nonasthmatic patients indicated that the presence of asthma had no significant effect on mortality (OR = 0.96; 95% CI 0.70–1.30; I 2 = 0%; p = 0.79). Results were stable in a sensitivity analysis. A descriptive analysis of other clinical outcomes indicated no difference in the duration of hospitalization and the risk of intensive care unit (ICU) transfer between asthmatic and nonasthmatic patients. To conclude, preliminary data indicates that asthma as a comorbidity may not increase the mortality of COVID-19. Data on the influence of asthma on the risk of hospitalization, the duration of hospitalization, the requirement of ICU admission, and disease severity is still too limited to draw any strong conclusions. Further studies with a larger sample size are required to establish strong evidence.

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Asthma and the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: A Literature Review

Cited by 74 publications

References 64 publications

Anomalous asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Google Trends patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic

Anomalous asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Google Trends patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic

ACE2 expression in allergic airway disease may decrease the risk and severity of COVID-19

Does Asthma Increase the Mortality of Patients with COVID-19?: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

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