J Korean Med Sci.  2022 Feb;37(8):e60. 10.3346/jkms.2022.37.e60.

Changes in the Incidence of Intussusception and Infectious Diseases After the COVID-19 Pandemic in Korea

• Yoo IH
• Kang HM
• Jeong DC

• KMID: 2526800
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2022.37.e60

Abstract

Background
Intussusception refers to the invagination of a part of the intestine into itself. The exact cause for this condition is unknown in most cases. The active implementation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection control guidelines has reduced the spread of COVID-19 and the incidence of other infectious diseases in children. The current study aimed to identify changes in pediatric intussusception and infectious diseases after the implementation of infection control guidelines and confirm the association between intussusception and contagious diseases.
Methods
We analyzed the electronic medical records of pediatric patients diagnosed with intussusception from seven hospitals in Korea between January 2017 and December 2020. We used open data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency to investigate changes in infectious diseases over the same period.
Results
Altogether, we evaluated 390 children with intussusception. There was a statistically significant decrease in the incidence of monthly visits with intussusception in the COVID-19 period group (9.0 vs. 3.5, P < 0.001). When the monthly incidence of infectious diseases was compared between the pre-COVID-19 and the COVID-19 periods, a statistically significant decrease in respiratory viruses (7979.0 vs. 815.2, P < 0.001), enterovirus infection (262.2 vs. 6.6, P < 0.001), and viral enteritis (916.2 vs. 197.8, P< 0.001) were confirmed in the COVID-19 period. Through interrupted time series analysis, it was confirmed that the incidence of intussusception and viral infectious diseases have drastically decreased since March 2020, when COVID-19 infection control guidelines were actively implemented.
Conclusion
We confirmed that implementing infection control guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a decrease in intussusception and viral infectious diseases. Through this result, it was possible to indirectly confirm the existing hypothesis that viral infections play a significant role in the pathophysiologic mechanism of intussusception.

Keyword

COVID-19; Intussusception; Viral infection; Social Distancing; Incidence Rate

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Interrupted time series regression analysis of monthly cases by diseases. Horizontal lines depict interventions. The significance of intervention is shown in the center of the lines. (A) Intussusception. (B) Respiratory viruses. (C) Enteroviruses. (D) Viral enteritis.

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