Effects of COVID-19-targeted nonpharmaceutical interventions on children's respiratory admissions in China: a national multicenter time series study.

• Our results suggest that nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) reduce children's respiratory admissions significantly. • The effect of NPIs is most drastic for pneumonia among children of all ages. • The effect is most drastic for children aged 4-6 and 7-12 years. • NPIs may be used to further prevent admissions for children's respiratory infections. To estimate the impact of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) targeted at the COVID-19 pandemic on the admission number of respiratory diseases, including pneumonia, acute bronchitis & bronchiolitis, and acute upper respiratory infections (AURIs) for children in China. Continuous hospitalization records aged 0-18 years from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2020, were collected from 26 tertiary children's hospitals. Interrupted time series analysis with a quasi-Poisson model was conducted with the start time of the COVID-19 pandemic as the interrupted timepoint and the weekly admission numbers of all-cause respiratory disease, pneumonia, acute bronchitis & bronchiolitis, and AURI as the outcome measures. Hospitalizations of childhood neoplasms were analyzed as the reference group. The reduction in admission numbers following NPIs was -55.0% (-57.9 to -51.9%) for all-cause respiratory diseases, -62.7% (-65.7 to -59.5%) for pneumonia, -48.1% (-53.3 to -42.3%) for bronchitis & bronchiolitis, and -24.3% (-28.6 to -19.8%) for AURI. The effect estimates of NPIs on childhood neoplasms was -29.1% (-33.6 to -24.4%). Stratification analysis showed the reduction was most drastic for children at 4-6 and 7-12 years. The admission number for respiratory diseases among children in China decreased drastically after the implementation of NPIs. NPIs with low socio-economic burdens should be suggested even outside the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]