Patients & Methods
This is a retrospective study carried out in children between 3 and 17 years of age, with a confirmed diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection (by antigen test, PCR or serology) from March to December 2020. The children were cared as outpatients in the Severo Ochoa Hospital (Leganés, Madrid) which and as inpatients in the La Paz Hospital (Madrid) which was a referral center for pediatric hospitalization. All patients were contacted by telephone and informed consent was obtained. The study was approved by the ethics committee of both hospitals. Clinical data of the acute infection were collected, as well as those related with family history of asthma or atopy. The ISAAC questionnaire1was carried out to determine the prevalence of asthma. Asthma was defined as affirmative response to the question 6 of the ISAAC questionnaire, “Has your child ever had asthma?”, and it was considered as the main variable of the study.
Statistical analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), Version 21.0. Values were expressed as percentages for discrete variables, and as median and interquartile range (IQR) for continuous variables. The demographic, clinical and evolutionary characteristics were compared by Chi2, Fisher´s exact test and Mann-Whitney test as appropriate. A 2-sided value of P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.