Observational studyArchives de pediatrie : organe officiel de la Societe francaise de pediatrie2022
Changes in pediatric emergency department visits during a COVID-19 lockdown period: An exhaustive single-center analysis.
Observational study in Archives de pediatrie : organe officiel de la Societe francaise de pediatrie, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- A local operational definition of pediatric emergency department overcrowding: an 8-year retrospective observational cohort study from the OACS+ project.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2026Article
- Pandemic and post-pandemic shifts in onset and severity of pediatric nephrotic syndrome: a comparative cohort analysis.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Examining Pediatric Emergency Utilization Trends Before and After the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Eight-Year Cohort Study from a South Korean Tertiary Center.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 lockdown period on hospital admissions for paediatric accidents: a French nationwide study.European journal of pediatrics · 2024Article
- 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
- Impact of the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Pediatric Emergency Department Attendance in a Tertiary Center in South Italy: An Interrupted Time-Series Analysis.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn many countries, the restrictions related to the first period of lockdown during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to widespread changes in health service usage in general and in emergency departments in particular. However, no comprehensive evaluation of changes has been published to date. The objective of the present study was to determine the precise impact of the 2020 lockdown on admissions to a pediatric emergency department (PED) compared to the same periods in 2018 and 2019.
methodsThis retrospective, observational study included all patients under the age of 183 months (15.25 years) admitted to our French university hospital's PED during the period from March 17 to May 11 in the years 2018, 2019, and 2020. The primary outcome was the change in PED admissions in 2020 compared to 2018 and 2019. The secondary outcomes were notably changes in the primary discharge diagnoses, the discharge destination, and unwarranted visits.
resultsA total of 10,479 PED visits were identified, of which 10,295 were analyzed. In 2020, the number of PED visits fell by 61% and 63% vs. 2018 and 2019, respectively. Although the number of discharges to other hospital departments decreased by 52% and 49%, the proportion of these discharges increased: 18% of 1579 in 2020 vs. 13% of 4232 in 2018 and of 4484 in 2019 (p<0.01). Discharge from the PED to the intensive care unit was significantly more frequent in 2020 (p<0.05). Unwarranted visits were significantly lower in 2020 (19%) as compared to 2018 (22%) and 2019 (24%). Surgical and injury-related discharge diagnoses increased by 6% in 2020 (p<0.001), with a significant rise in trauma and foreign-body injuries (p<0.05). With regard to disease-related discharge diagnoses, we observed a significant rise in mental, behavioral, and social issues (p<0.01). Conversely, there was a significant (p<0.01) drop in diagnoses of acute infectious diseases in 2020 compared with 2018 and 2019.
conclusionLockdown was associated with a massive reduction in the number of PED visits, a significant change in primary discharge diagnoses, and a decrease in the proportion of unwarranted PED visits compared to the previous 2 years. This should encourage public health researchers to examine how to alleviate the burden of unnecessary PED visits.
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