For many children with chronic conditions, daily routines coordinated by parents and caregivers are a critical part of treatment. In a new study, we show that when those routines were disrupted with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, adherence to asthma control medication declined substantially. Drawing on national pharmacy claims data covering nearly all U.S. prescriptions, we find that children’s use of these medications declined sharply during the first year of the pandemic—especially for the youngest patients. By December 2020, adherence among preschool-aged children was down roughly 40% compared with 2019. Adults, by contrast, increased adherence to their own medications, underscoring that the decline was concentrated among children with asthma rather than a general fall in medication use.
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