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The effects of the COVID-19 lockdown and alcohol restriction on trauma-related emergency department cases in a South African regional hospital
The objective of this study was to compare the effect of the Covid-19 lockdown and the alcohol restriction on the number of cases that presented to the Emergency Department (ED) with the same time period two years prior. The method used was a retrospective review of medical records, directly compari...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
African Federation for Emergency Medicine
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7833336/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33520631 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.afjem.2020.12.001 |
Sumario: | The objective of this study was to compare the effect of the Covid-19 lockdown and the alcohol restriction on the number of cases that presented to the Emergency Department (ED) with the same time period two years prior. The method used was a retrospective review of medical records, directly comparing the types and numbers of trauma cases as well as non-trauma cases that presented to the ED in March and April 2020 with the same period two years prior. Our results showed a reduction during both months of lockdown compared to the same time period in 2018 with trauma cases in March 2020 down 33.14% and April 2020 down 57.93%. The non-trauma ED cases were down 2.52% in March and 37.43% in April compared to two years prior. When comparing only the last 6 days of March, a significant percentage decrease is visible as trauma cases fell from 20.79% in 2018 to just 8.58% of the total cases in 2020. In conclusion, our data showed a significant reduction in almost all types of ED cases during the lockdown period, but most significantly in trauma-related cases which was likely due, inter alia, to the prohibition of alcohol sales, gatherings and unnecessary travel. |
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