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Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Headache Evaluations in the Pediatric Emergency Department

Alberto M Cappellari1, Stefania Margiotta2, Gaia Bruschi2

  • 1Department of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Fondazione IRCCS Cà Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy.

Pediatric Neurology
|October 15, 2022
PubMed

Insights

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduced pediatric emergency department visits for headaches. This study highlights a notable decrease in headache evaluations during the pandemic, particularly for secondary headaches.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Emergency Medicine
  • Epidemiology
  • Public Health

Background:

  • Headache is a common presenting symptom in pediatric emergency departments (EDs).
  • The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with changes in healthcare utilization patterns.
  • The impact on pediatric headache evaluations in the ED remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To assess the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on pediatric ED evaluations for headache.
  • To quantify changes in headache evaluation rates before and during the pandemic.

Main Methods:

  • Retrospective analysis of pediatric ED visits for headache from January 2017 to January 2022.
  • Comparison of evaluation rates between the prepandemic (January 2017-February 2020) and pandemic (March 2020-January 2022) periods.
  • Incidence rate ratios (IRR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated to quantify the impact.

Main Results:

  • A total of 890 headache evaluations were registered (689 prepandemic, 201 pandemic).
  • Monthly evaluation rates decreased from 18.1 (prepandemic) to 8.7 (pandemic), an IRR of 0.49.
  • The reduction was more pronounced for secondary headaches (IRR 0.31) than primary headaches (IRR 0.56).

Conclusions:

  • The COVID-19 pandemic led to a substantial decrease in pediatric emergency department visits for headache.
  • This reduction was observed for both primary and secondary headache types, with a greater impact on secondary headaches.
  • Further research is needed to understand the long-term implications of these changes in healthcare seeking behavior.
Abstract

Keywords:
ChildrenEmergency departmentHeadacheInfectious diseasesNeurological disordersSARS-CoV-2

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