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The impact of COVID-19 on paediatric emergency department visits. A one-year retrospective study

BACKGROUND: The number of paediatric emergency department (ED) visits and hospital admissions was recorded in a tertiary referral centre during the first year of the COVID-19, March 2020–February 2021, and compared with those of the preceding year. METHODS: The number of visits and admissions and th...

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Autores principales: Kostopoulou, Eirini, Gkentzi, Despoina, Papasotiriou, Marios, Fouzas, Sotirios, Tagalaki, Anastasia, Varvarigou, Anastasia, Dimitriou, Gabriel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group US 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8556833/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34718355
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41390-021-01815-w
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author Kostopoulou, Eirini
Gkentzi, Despoina
Papasotiriou, Marios
Fouzas, Sotirios
Tagalaki, Anastasia
Varvarigou, Anastasia
Dimitriou, Gabriel
author_facet Kostopoulou, Eirini
Gkentzi, Despoina
Papasotiriou, Marios
Fouzas, Sotirios
Tagalaki, Anastasia
Varvarigou, Anastasia
Dimitriou, Gabriel
author_sort Kostopoulou, Eirini
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The number of paediatric emergency department (ED) visits and hospital admissions was recorded in a tertiary referral centre during the first year of the COVID-19, March 2020–February 2021, and compared with those of the preceding year. METHODS: The number of visits and admissions and the reason of visit and admission were prospectively recorded from 15,087 patients’ files. RESULTS: A substantial decline in the total number of visits and increase in the admission rate were documented during the COVID-19 year compared to the preceding year (10691 vs 4396 patients, 22.59% vs 18.15% (OR: 1.316, CI 95%: 1.208–2.242, p < 0.0001), respectively). Fever and/or respiratory symptoms were the commonest reported symptoms in both periods. Possible explanations include: (i) restricted overall infection transmission due to confinement and self-protective measures, (ii) avoidance of unnecessary hospital visits in the absence of severe symptoms and (iii) reduced or delayed access to medical care due to parental fear of children’s exposure to COVID-19. CONCLUSION: This study is the first worldwide to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on ED visits and admissions throughout the whole year of the pandemic, and to highlight the need for re-evaluation of future protective strategies to infections, adjustment of health-care systems and parental education so that medical care in a health-care setting is sought in a more appropriate manner. IMPACT: A significant decline in paediatric ED visits and increase in the admission rate was observed during the first year of COVID-19 in a tertiary referral centre, possibly due to reduced overall infection transmission, limited ED overuse, but also ED underuse due to parental fear of children’s exposure to SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 may serve as an opportunity for societies to re-evaluate future strategies to infections, adjust health-care systems accordingly, and reinforce parents to seek medical care more appropriately. Although the incidence of critical illness in children due to COVID-19 and in general is low, special attention should be devoted to identifying children at risk early.
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spelling pubmed-85568332021-11-01 The impact of COVID-19 on paediatric emergency department visits. A one-year retrospective study Kostopoulou, Eirini Gkentzi, Despoina Papasotiriou, Marios Fouzas, Sotirios Tagalaki, Anastasia Varvarigou, Anastasia Dimitriou, Gabriel Pediatr Res Population Study Article BACKGROUND: The number of paediatric emergency department (ED) visits and hospital admissions was recorded in a tertiary referral centre during the first year of the COVID-19, March 2020–February 2021, and compared with those of the preceding year. METHODS: The number of visits and admissions and the reason of visit and admission were prospectively recorded from 15,087 patients’ files. RESULTS: A substantial decline in the total number of visits and increase in the admission rate were documented during the COVID-19 year compared to the preceding year (10691 vs 4396 patients, 22.59% vs 18.15% (OR: 1.316, CI 95%: 1.208–2.242, p < 0.0001), respectively). Fever and/or respiratory symptoms were the commonest reported symptoms in both periods. Possible explanations include: (i) restricted overall infection transmission due to confinement and self-protective measures, (ii) avoidance of unnecessary hospital visits in the absence of severe symptoms and (iii) reduced or delayed access to medical care due to parental fear of children’s exposure to COVID-19. CONCLUSION: This study is the first worldwide to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on ED visits and admissions throughout the whole year of the pandemic, and to highlight the need for re-evaluation of future protective strategies to infections, adjustment of health-care systems and parental education so that medical care in a health-care setting is sought in a more appropriate manner. IMPACT: A significant decline in paediatric ED visits and increase in the admission rate was observed during the first year of COVID-19 in a tertiary referral centre, possibly due to reduced overall infection transmission, limited ED overuse, but also ED underuse due to parental fear of children’s exposure to SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 may serve as an opportunity for societies to re-evaluate future strategies to infections, adjust health-care systems accordingly, and reinforce parents to seek medical care more appropriately. Although the incidence of critical illness in children due to COVID-19 and in general is low, special attention should be devoted to identifying children at risk early. Nature Publishing Group US 2021-10-30 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC8556833/ /pubmed/34718355 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41390-021-01815-w Text en © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to the International Pediatric Research Foundation, Inc 2021 This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
spellingShingle Population Study Article
Kostopoulou, Eirini
Gkentzi, Despoina
Papasotiriou, Marios
Fouzas, Sotirios
Tagalaki, Anastasia
Varvarigou, Anastasia
Dimitriou, Gabriel
The impact of COVID-19 on paediatric emergency department visits. A one-year retrospective study
title The impact of COVID-19 on paediatric emergency department visits. A one-year retrospective study
title_full The impact of COVID-19 on paediatric emergency department visits. A one-year retrospective study
title_fullStr The impact of COVID-19 on paediatric emergency department visits. A one-year retrospective study
title_full_unstemmed The impact of COVID-19 on paediatric emergency department visits. A one-year retrospective study
title_short The impact of COVID-19 on paediatric emergency department visits. A one-year retrospective study
title_sort impact of covid-19 on paediatric emergency department visits. a one-year retrospective study
topic Population Study Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8556833/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34718355
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41390-021-01815-w
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