ArticleCureus2025
Changes in Pediatric Acute Respiratory Infections Before, During, and After the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Retrospective Study.
Article in Cureus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Acute Respiratory Infections in Ghanaian Children: Epidemiology, Antimicrobial Resistance, and Prevention Strategies.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
INTRODUCTION AND
objectivesAcute respiratory infections (ARIs) are a significant cause of morbidity in children and a common reason for emergency department (ED) visits. During the COVID-19 pandemic, governments adopted non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs) to limit SARS-CoV-2 transmission. These measures also reduced the circulation and seasonality of other respiratory pathogens, with little impact on infections in non-respiratory organ systems. This study aimed to quantify changes in the incidence and severity of pediatric ARIs before, during, and after the pandemic. MATERIALS AND
methodsWe conducted a retrospective observational time-series study of children aged 0-10 years presenting with ARIs to a level 2 pediatric ED in Covilhã, Portugal, from April 2019 to April 2023. To ensure representativeness while controlling data volume, admissions from the first five days of each month were analyzed. Three periods were defined: pre-COVID-19 (Pre-C), COVID-19 (C), and post-COVID-19 (Post-C). All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS Statistics version 28 (IBM Corp. Released 2021. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 28.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.). A significance level of p = 0.05 was applied.
resultsAmong 7,448 sampled ED visits, 2,210 (29.7%) involved ARIs. Their proportion fell from Pre-C to C (p = 0.028) and rose sharply in Post-C (p < 0.001), exceeding Pre-C levels (p < 0.001). In C, atypical inter-seasonal peaks occurred. Hospitalization rates, length of stay, and oxygen requirements showed no significant variation.
conclusionsCOVID-19 NPIs were associated with a marked reduction and altered timing of pediatric ARIs, whereas infections in other organ systems were largely unaffected. After restrictions were lifted, ARI incidence surpassed pre-pandemic levels, but disease severity remained stable. These findings highlight how public health measures and subsequent exposure shifts can reshape respiratory infection epidemiology in children.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.