Link to Pubmed [PMID] – 39341400
Link to DOI – 10.1016/j.jinf.2024.106287
J Infect 2024 Sep; (): 106287
We aimed to evaluate the impact of the pandemic and post-pandemic periods on hospital admissions for LRTI, with a focus on patients with chronic respiratory disease (CRD).From July 2013 to June 2023, monthly numbers of adult hospitalisations for LRTI (excluding SARS-CoV-2) were extracted from the French National Hospital Discharge Database. They were modelled by regressions with autocorrelated errors. Three periods were defined: (1) early pandemic and successive lockdowns; (2) gradual lifting of restrictions and widespread SARS-CoV-2 vaccination; (3) withdrawal of restriction measures.Pre-pandemic incidence was 96 (90.5 to 101.5) per 100,000 population. Compared with the pre-pandemic period, no more seasonality and significant reductions were estimated in the first two periods: -43.64% (-50.11 to -37.17) and -32.97% (-39.88 to -26.05), respectively. A rebound with a positive trend and a seasonal pattern was observed in period 3. Similar results were observed for CRD patients with no significant difference with pre-pandemic levels in the last period (-9.21%; -20.9% to 1.67%), albeit with differential changes according to the type of CRD.COVID-19 pandemic containment measures contributed to changes in LRTI incidence, with a rapid increase and return to a seasonal pattern after their lifting, particularly in patients with CRD.