Caregiver Experiences Managing Persistent Childhood Asthma During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

COVID-19 has adversely affected child wellness, but it is unclear whether the pandemic led to changes in home management of chronic diseases like asthma. We surveyed 93 caregivers of children with persistent asthma from 2 ongoing asthma trials to measure changes in home asthma management, stressors, access to health care, and caregivers’ worry about COVID-19 affecting their child’s health. We conducted descriptive analyses, and assessed whether caregiver worry about COVID-19 was associated with asthma management, stressors, health care access, or recent symptoms. Most (80%) caregivers worried that COVID-19 would affect their child’s health, and >50% restricted their child’s physical activity to avoid asthma symptoms. We observed a dose-dependent relationship between increasing worry about COVID-19 and activity restrictions, financial hardship, difficulty obtaining asthma medications, and nocturnal asthma symptoms. These findings raise concern that children with persistent asthma may be at particular risk for weight gain and obesity-associated asthma morbidity due to the pandemic.