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Impact of COVID-19 Restrictions on Acute Gastroenteritis in Children: A Regional, Danish, Register-Based Study
Eva Plantener1, Kumanan Rune Nanthan1, Ulrik Deding2,3
1Department of Clinical Microbiology, University Hospital of Southern Denmark, 6200 Aabenraa, Denmark.
Insights
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) restrictions led to a significant decrease in childhood acute gastroenteritis (AGE) visits and pathogen-positive samples. Further research is needed to understand if this reduction is due to hygiene measures or altered healthcare-seeking behaviors.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Infectious Diseases
- Epidemiology
Background:
- The COVID-19 pandemic introduced unprecedented public health restrictions, including social distancing and enhanced hygiene measures.
- The impact of these measures on the incidence of common childhood illnesses like acute gastroenteritis (AGE) remains an important area of investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effect of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) restrictions on the occurrence of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in children.
- To analyze changes in AGE-related pediatric visits and the detection of AGE-causing pathogens during and before the restriction periods.
Main Methods:
- A register-based study was conducted using data from three Danish hospitals between March 2018 and February 2021.
- Included were all pediatric visits for AGE and all positive stool samples for AGE pathogens.
- The Wilcoxon rank-sum test compared data from the restriction period with the pre-restriction period.
Main Results:
- A total of 222,157 children were included, with 3917 diagnosed with AGE.
- A significant decrease of 46.6% in monthly AGE-related visits was observed post-restrictions (p < 0.001).
- Positive stool samples for AGE pathogens decreased by 38.2% (p = 0.008) during the restriction period.
Conclusions:
- COVID-19 restrictions were associated with a significant reduction in pediatric acute gastroenteritis cases.
- The observed decrease may be attributed to improved hygiene practices and social distancing, or potentially altered healthcare-seeking behaviors.
- Further studies are warranted to elucidate the precise factors contributing to this observed reduction.
Abstract:
This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) restrictions such as social distancing on the occurrence of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) among children. This study is a register-based study, including every child seen in the departments of paediatrics with the initial diagnosis of AGE in three neighbouring hospitals in Denmark, from March 2018 through February 2021. The study also included every positive stool sample for AGE-causing pathogens analysed in these three hospitals from children during the same period. The Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used to determine differences between the period during the SARS-CoV-2 restrictions and before. In all, 222,157 children were seen in the three paediatric departments during this period. Of these, 3917 children were diagnosed with AGE. We found a decrease of 46.6% in AGE-related visits per month after the SARS-CoV-2 restrictions were introduced compared to before (p-value < 0.001). Positive stool samples decreased by 38.2% (p-value = 0.008) during the restrictions. This study found that cases of paediatric AGE decreased significantly the during COVID-19 restrictions, suggesting that studies should be conducted to determine whether this reduction was a result of good hand hygiene and social distancing or just a result of altered health-seeking behaviour among children.
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