| Title: |
A multicenter evaluation of pediatric emergency department injury visits during the COVID-19 pandemic |
| Authors: |
Hanson, Holly R; Formica, Margaret; Laraque-Arena, Danielle; Zonfrillo, Mark R; Desai, Puja; O'Neil, Joseph O; Unni, Purnima; Johnson, Estell Lenita; Cobb, Patricia; Agarwal, Maneesha; Beckworth, Kristen; Schroter, Stephanie; Strotmeyer, Stephen; Donnelly, Katie A; Middelberg, Leah K; Morse, Amber M; Dodington, James; Latuska, Richard F; Anderson, Brit; Lawson, Karla A; Valente, Michael; Levas, Michael N; Kiragu, Andrew Waititu; Monroe, Kathy; Ruest, Stephanie M; Lee, Lois K; Charyk Stewart, Tanya; Attridge, Megan M; Haasz, Maya; Jafri, Mubeen; McIntire, Alicia; Rogers, Steven C; Uspal, Neil G; Blanchard, Ashley; Hazeltine, Max D; Riech, Teresa; Jennissen, Charles; Model, Lynn; Fu, Quinney; Clukies, Lindsay D; Juang, David; Ruda, Michelle T; Prince, Jose M; Chao, Stephanie; Yorkgitis, Brian K; Pomerantz, Wendy J |
| Contributors: |
Surgery |
| Source: |
Injury epidemiology ; 10 ; 1 ; 66 ; England |
| Publication Year: |
2025 |
| Collection: |
University of Massachusetts, Medical School: eScholarship@UMMS |
| Subject Terms: |
Disparities; Emergency department; Injuries; Injury prevention; Pandemic; Pediatrics |
| Description: |
Background: Injuries, the leading cause of death in children 1-17 years old, are often preventable. Injury patterns are impacted by changes in the child's environment, shifts in supervision, and caregiver stressors. The objective of this study was to evaluate the incidence and proportion of injuries, mechanisms, and severity seen in Pediatric Emergency Departments (PEDs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This multicenter, cross-sectional study from January 2019 through December 2020 examined visits to 40 PEDs for children < 18 years old. Injury was defined by at least one International Classification of Disease-10th revision (ICD-10) code for bodily injury (S00-T78). The main study outcomes were total and proportion of PED injury-related visits compared to all visits in March through December 2020 and to the same months in 2019. Weekly injury visits as a percentage of total PED visits were calculated for all weeks between January 2019 and December 2020. Results: The study included 741,418 PED visits for injuries pre-COVID-19 pandemic (2019) and during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020). Overall PED visits from all causes decreased 27.4% in March to December 2020 compared to the same time frame in 2019; however, the proportion of injury-related PED visits in 2020 increased by 37.7%. In 2020, injured children were younger (median age 6.31 years vs 7.31 in 2019), more commonly White (54% vs 50%, p < 0.001), non-Hispanic (72% vs 69%, p < 0.001) and had private insurance (35% vs 32%, p < 0.001). Injury hospitalizations increased 2.2% (p < 0.001) and deaths increased 0.03% (p < 0.001) in 2020 compared to 2019. Mean injury severity score increased (2.2 to 2.4, p < 0.001) between 2019 and 2020. Injuries declined for struck by/against (- 4.9%) and overexertion (- 1.2%) mechanisms. Injuries proportionally increased for pedal cycles (2.8%), cut/pierce (1.5%), motor vehicle occupant (0.9%), other transportation (0.6%), fire/burn (0.5%) and firearms (0.3%) compared to all injuries in 2020 versus 2019. ... |
| Document Type: |
article in journal/newspaper |
| File Description: |
application/pdf |
| Language: |
English |
| ISSN: |
38093383 |
| Relation: |
Injury Epidemiology; https://doi.org/10.1186/s40621-023-00476-z; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/54866 |
| DOI: |
10.1186/s40621-023-00476-z |
| Availability: |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40621-023-00476-z; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/54866 |
| Rights: |
© The Author(s) 2023. Open Access: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecom‑ mons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. ; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Accession Number: |
edsbas.302E91A7 |
| Database: |
BASE |