Cargando…
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...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
---|---|
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 |
_version_ | 1784592251559608320 |
---|---|
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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8556833 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group US |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT kostopouloueirini theimpactofcovid19onpaediatricemergencydepartmentvisitsaoneyearretrospectivestudy AT gkentzidespoina theimpactofcovid19onpaediatricemergencydepartmentvisitsaoneyearretrospectivestudy AT papasotirioumarios theimpactofcovid19onpaediatricemergencydepartmentvisitsaoneyearretrospectivestudy AT fouzassotirios theimpactofcovid19onpaediatricemergencydepartmentvisitsaoneyearretrospectivestudy AT tagalakianastasia theimpactofcovid19onpaediatricemergencydepartmentvisitsaoneyearretrospectivestudy AT varvarigouanastasia theimpactofcovid19onpaediatricemergencydepartmentvisitsaoneyearretrospectivestudy AT dimitriougabriel theimpactofcovid19onpaediatricemergencydepartmentvisitsaoneyearretrospectivestudy AT kostopouloueirini impactofcovid19onpaediatricemergencydepartmentvisitsaoneyearretrospectivestudy AT gkentzidespoina impactofcovid19onpaediatricemergencydepartmentvisitsaoneyearretrospectivestudy AT papasotirioumarios impactofcovid19onpaediatricemergencydepartmentvisitsaoneyearretrospectivestudy AT fouzassotirios impactofcovid19onpaediatricemergencydepartmentvisitsaoneyearretrospectivestudy AT tagalakianastasia impactofcovid19onpaediatricemergencydepartmentvisitsaoneyearretrospectivestudy AT varvarigouanastasia impactofcovid19onpaediatricemergencydepartmentvisitsaoneyearretrospectivestudy AT dimitriougabriel impactofcovid19onpaediatricemergencydepartmentvisitsaoneyearretrospectivestudy |