The bronchiolitis epidemic in 2021–2022 during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: experience of a third level centre in Northern Italy

Table 2 Analysis of the association between admission to intensive care unit, patient characteristics, bronchiolitis etiology, need of respiratory support and observation period

Variable		Admitted to Intensive care unit (N = 36)	Total number of children hospitalized for bronchiolitis 2017–2022 (N = 141)	Odds Ratio	p-value	aOR*	p-value
Period	2021–22	20 (40.0)**	50	3.1 (1.4–6.8)	0.005	3.6 (1.5–8.9)	0.005
Period	2017–20	16 (17.6)	91	1	0.005	1	0.005
Age (days)	> 60	18 (21.4)	84	0.6 (0.3–1.3)	0.24	n.s	n.s
Age (days)	≤ 60	18 (31.6)	57	1	0.24		n.s
Risk factors	Yes	17 (44.7)	38	3.6 (1.6–8.0)	0.002	4.4 (1.7–11.3)	0.002
Risk factors	No	19 (18.5)	103	1	0.002		0.002
RSV***	Yes	33 (32.0)	103	4.4 (1.2–15.5)	0.02	5.4 (1.3–22.2)	0.02
RSV***	No	3 (9.7)	31	1	0.02	1	0.02
HFNC/CPAP	Yes	34 (33.7)	101	9.6 (2.2–42.4)	0.0002	8.0 (1.6–39.1)
HFNC/CPAP	No	2 (5.0)	40	1	0.0002
Silverman Score	≥ 2	25 (37.3)	67	3.7 (1.6–8.5)	0.002	n.s	n.s
Silverman Score	< 2	10 (13.9)	72	1	0.002		n.s

^* aOR: Odds Ratio adjusted for other covariates
^**rate of admission to ICU (N° of children admitted/total number of hospitalized children*100) is given in bracket
^*** for 7 cases the etiological agent was unknown (none admitted to ICU)

ISSN: 1824-7288