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Trauma Visits to a Pediatric Emergency Department During the COVID-19 Quarantine and "Stay at Home" Period
Usha Sethuraman1,2, Nirupama Kannikeswaran1,2, Adam Singer1,2
1Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, MI, USA.
Insights
During stay-at-home orders, pediatric emergency visits for trauma decreased, but the proportion and severity of injuries, including child physical abuse, increased significantly. This highlights a concerning shift in pediatric injury epidemiology during the pandemic.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine
- Trauma Epidemiology
- Public Health Policy
Background:
- The impact of social distancing measures on pediatric injuries remains largely uncharacterized.
- Understanding these effects is crucial for public health preparedness during pandemics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze changes in pediatric injury visits during a
Main Methods:
- Retrospective comparison of pediatric emergency department visits for individuals ≤21 years.
- Analysis of data from the
Main Results:
- A 35.6% reduction in overall trauma visits occurred during the stay-at-home (SHO) period compared to the previous year.
- Despite the reduction, the proportion of injury visits increased significantly (15.5% vs. 8.1%).
- Increases were observed in visits for child physical abuse (CPA), firearms, and dog bites, alongside higher trauma alerts, injury severity, critical care admissions, and deaths.
Conclusions:
- While overall pediatric trauma visits declined during the SHO period, the relative proportion and severity of injuries escalated.
- Specific injury types, including child physical abuse, dog bites, and firearm-related incidents, showed significant increases.
- Further research is needed to fully comprehend the long-term epidemiological consequences of the pandemic on pediatric trauma.
Background:
Impact of social distancing on pediatric injuries is unknown.
Methods:
We retrospectively compared injury visits to a pediatric emergency department by individuals ≤21 years during "Stay at Home" (SHO) period to the same period in 2019 (non-SHO). Demographics, types, and outcomes of injuries were noted.
Results:
Although, there was a 35.6% reduction in trauma-related emergency department visits during SHO period (1226 vs 1904), the proportion of injury visits increased (15.5% vs 8.1%, P < .001) and mean age was lower (5.8 yrs ±4.5 vs 8.4 yrs ± 5.2, P < .001). There were significant increases in visits related to child physical abuse (CPA), firearms, and dog bites. Further, significant increases in trauma alerts (P < .01), injury severity (P < .01), critical care admissions (P < .001), and deaths (P < .01) occurred during the SHO period.
Conclusions:
Although overall trauma-related visits decreased during SHO, the proportion of these visits and their severity increased. Trauma visits related to child physical abuse, dog bites, and firearms increased. Further studies are required to assess the long-term impact of pandemic on pediatric trauma epidemiology.
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