ASSESSING SEVERITY OF COVID-19 AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF MIS-C IN PEDIATRIC PATIENTS WITH ATOPIC DISEASE

Abstract

Research surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on atopic patients mainly focuses on adult populations. The need for further studies involving children with COVID-19 expanded drastically after development of the Delta variant. We report comparisons of outcomes in atopic and non-atopic COVID-19 patients in our patient cohort at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC). We conducted a retrospective review of patients using the Patient Cohort Explorer (PCE), a de-identified data base. We searched for COVID-19 positive patients aged 0-21 from 1/1/2020-12/31/2021 and divided this population into two cohorts: an atopic population and non-atopic population. Incidence of hospitalizations, ICU admissions, death, length of stay, inhaled corticosteroid prescription history and incidence of MIS-C in the two populations were collected. There were 5,261 patients with confirmed COVID-19 aged 0-21. After exclusion criteria was applied, there were 1420 patients in the atopic cohort and 2525 patients in the non-atopic cohort. Hospitalizations and ICU admissions were greater in the atopic population (p value < 0.05). Death, length of stay, and incidence of MIS-C were similar in both populations. There were more atopic patients on inhaled corticosteroid than non-atopic patients. This study sought to further elucidate whether atopy in pediatric patients was associated with severe COVID-19. Our study showed increased hospitalizations and intensive care need in the atopic population but similar outcomes in mortality, length of stay and development of MIS-C. Future longitudinal prospective studies are needed to assess long term effects on these patient's atopic disease after COVID-19 infection.