The Impact Of COVID-19 In Asthma Control In Patients With Severe Asthma

There is a lack of data regarding the impact of COVID-19 in severe asthma patients. We propose to understand the effects of COVID-19 in Asthma’s control and quality of life. We reviewed clinical files from march 2020 to july 2022 and compared Asthma Control Test (ACT), Control Of Allergic Rhinitis and Asthma (CARAT) and Mini Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (mini-AQLQ) before and after COVID-19. Disease severity was classified considering hospitalization, oxygen therapy or need for systemic corticosteroids. SPSS was used to do statistical analysis. Forty-nine out of 114 patients had COVID-19: 35 female, median age 54 years; 57% had mild disease (n=27), 43% moderate disease (n=20) and 4% severe disease (n=2). Forty-seven patients were under biological therapy: 53% omalizumab (n=25), 30% mepolizumab (n=14), 11% benralizumab (n=5) and 6% dupilumab (n=3). Of these, 43% were self-administered at home (n=20). ACT’s median score before COVID-19 was 22 and after COVID-19 was 20 (difference statistically significant p-value 0.002). CARAT’s median score was 21 before and 19 after (difference not statistically significant, p-value 0.054). We also didn’t find statistically significant difference (p-value 0.949) between mini-AQLQ before (5,6) and after COVID-19 median score (5,0). SARS-COV-2 infection was found to affect asthma’s control and quality of life with a decrease in ACT, CARAT and mini-AQLQ scores, however the difference was only statistically significant in ACT. More studies with a larger number of patients and with patients without a severe asthma phenotype should be carried out to better understand this eventual correlation.