ArticleThorax2021
Impact of COVID-19 national lockdown on asthma exacerbations: interrupted time-series analysis of English primary care data.
Article in Thorax, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 65 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
65 citing papers in PubMed, 95 citations in OpenAlex.
- A letter intervention to GPs practices to promoting prescription uptake in school-age children with asthma during summer holidays (TRAINS study): a pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial.NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2026Trial
- Nurse-led care for children with asthma in primary care: results of a randomised controlled trial.ERJ open research · 2026Article
- Observational
- Asthma exacerbation risk after short-term air pollution exposure varies by age, sex, severity, and eosinophil count: East London cohort study.Respiratory research · 2026Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adult asthma-related health care utilization.The journal of allergy and clinical immunology. Global · 2026Article
- The impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on primary care contact among vulnerable populations in England: a controlled interrupted time-series study.BJGP open · 2025Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Adult Asthma-Related Healthcare Utilization.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Outpatient utilization trend of bronchodilator and anti-inflammatory agents in the pandemic and beyond.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2025Article
- The Indirect Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Mortality, Complications, and Healthcare Utilization Among Patients With Chronic Respiratory Diseases in Hong Kong: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis.Journal of evidence-based medicine · 2025Article
- Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on sex disparities in asthma healthcare utilisation and outcomes: a population study.ERJ open research · 2025Article
- Does adding digital inhalers to asthma triple therapy result in quadruple therapy?ERJ open research · 2025Article
- Evaluating digital adherence support in asthma: the ADITION non-interventional study.ERJ open research · 2025Article
- Real-world use of inhaled corticosteroid/formoterol as needed in adults with mild asthma: the PRIME study.ERJ open research · 2024Article
- Impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on hospital admissions for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: a nationwide population-based study.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2024Article
- Patient pathways for four major chronic respiratory diseases in England between 2008 and 2021.BMJ open respiratory research · 2024Article
- Modifiable risk factors for asthma exacerbations during the COVID-19 pandemic: a population-based repeated cross-sectional study using the Research and Surveillance Centre primary care database.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2024Article
- Article
- Impact of COVID-19 national response on primary care utilisation in Singapore: an interrupted time-series analysis.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Effect of COVID-19 on Bronchiectasis Exacerbation Rates: A Retrospective U.S. Insurance Claims Study.Annals of the American Thoracic Society · 2024Observational
- Article
5 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issuedCorrection:2023
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe impact of COVID-19 and ensuing national lockdown on asthma exacerbations is unclear.
methodsWe conducted an interrupted time-series (lockdown on 23 March 2020 as point of interruption) analysis in asthma cohort identified using a validated algorithm from a national-level primary care database, the Optimum Patient Care Database. We derived asthma exacerbation rates for every week and compared exacerbation rates in the period: January to August 2020 with a pre-COVID-19 period and January to August 2016-2019. Exacerbations were defined as asthma-related hospital attendance/admission (including accident and emergency visit), or an acute course of oral corticosteroids with evidence of respiratory review, as recorded in primary care. We used a generalised least squares modelling approach and stratified the analyses by age, sex, English region and healthcare setting.
resultsFrom a database of 9 949 387 patients, there were 100 165 patients with asthma who experienced at least one exacerbation during 2016-2020. Of 278 996 exacerbation episodes, 49 938 (17.9%) required hospital visit. Comparing pre-lockdown to post-lockdown period, we observed a statistically significant reduction in the level (-0.196 episodes per person-year; p<0.001; almost 20 episodes for every 100 patients with asthma per year) of exacerbation rates across all patients. The reductions in level in stratified analyses were: 0.005-0.244 (healthcare setting, only those without hospital attendance/admission were significant), 0.210-0.277 (sex), 0.159-0.367 (age), 0.068-0.590 (region).
conclusionsThere has been a significant reduction in attendance to primary care for asthma exacerbations during the pandemic. This reduction was observed in all age groups, both sexes and across most regions in England.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.