ArticleArchives of disease in childhood2021
Indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on paediatric healthcare use and severe disease: a retrospective national cohort study.
Article in Archives of disease in childhood, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 61 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
61 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 100 citations in OpenAlex.
- Nasopharyngeal carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae in Latin America and the Caribbean: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Consequences of Social Distancing Measures During the COVID-19 Pandemic First Wave on the Epidemiology of Children Admitted to Pediatric Emergency Departments and Pediatric Intensive Care Units: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2022Pooled it
- Article
- Pandemic and post-pandemic shifts in onset and severity of pediatric nephrotic syndrome: a comparative cohort analysis.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Changes in youth public psychiatric service utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy: an observational study.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Article
- Article
- Respiratory Syncytial Virus Burden in Premature Infants: The Role of Season With and Without RSV Immunoprophylaxis in a Multicenter Study.Pediatric pulmonology · 2025Article
- Article
- Clinical Impact of Serious Respiratory Disease in Children Under the Age of 2 Years During the 2021-2022 Bronchiolitis Season in England, Scotland, and Ireland.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2024Observational
- Review
- Characteristics and influencing factors of caregivers' healthcare preferences for young children under COVID-19 lockdown: a cross-sectional study in Shanghai, China.BMC primary care · 2024Article
- Article
- Acute health care use among children during the first 2.5 years of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Canada: a population-based repeated cross-sectional study.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2024Article
- Epidemiological characteristics of respiratory viruses in children during the COVID-19 epidemic in Chengdu, China.Microbiology spectrum · 2024Article
- Changes in the medical admissions and mortality amongst children in four South African hospitals following the COVID-19 pandemic: A five-year review.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- What was the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on unintentional injuries, in Canada and globally? A scoping review investigating how lockdown measures impacted the global burden of unintentional injury.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Impact of adapting paediatric intensive care units for adult care during the COVID-19 pandemic: a scoping review.BMJ open · 2023Article
- Rural and Urban patients' Requirements and Experiences of Out-of-hours medical care after cancer (RUREO): a questionnaire study.BMJ open · 2023Article
- Accessing healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative exploration of the experiences of parents and carers of children with chronic illness to inform future policies in times of crisis.BMC health services research · 2023Article
1 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
18 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo determine the indirect consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on paediatric healthcare utilisation and severe disease at a national level following lockdown on 23 March 2020.
designNational retrospective cohort study.
settingEmergency childhood primary and secondary care providers across Scotland; two national paediatric intensive care units (PICUs); statutory death records.
participants273 455 unscheduled primary care attendances; 462 437 emergency department attendances; 54 076 emergency hospital admissions; 413 PICU unplanned emergency admissions requiring invasive mechanical ventilation; and 415 deaths during the lockdown study period and equivalent dates in previous years.
main outcome measuresRates of emergency care consultations, attendances and admissions; clinical severity scores on presentation to PICU; rates and causes of childhood death. For all data sets, rates during the lockdown period were compared with mean or aggregated rates for the equivalent dates in 2016-2019.
resultsThe rates of emergency presentations to primary and secondary care fell during lockdown in comparison to previous years. Emergency PICU admissions for children requiring invasive mechanical ventilation also fell as a proportion of cases for the entire population, with an OR of 0.52 for likelihood of admission during lockdown (95% CI 0.37 to 0.73), compared with the equivalent period in previous years. Clinical severity scores did not suggest children were presenting with more advanced disease. The greatest reduction in PICU admissions was for diseases of the respiratory system; those for injury, poisoning or other external causes were equivalent to previous years. Mortality during lockdown did not change significantly compared with 2016-2019.
conclusionsNational lockdown led to a reduction in paediatric emergency care utilisation, without associated evidence of severe harm.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.