ArticlePloS one2022
Healthcare utilization in children across the care continuum during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in PloS one, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Changes in caregiver mental health and pediatric asthma control during COVID-19.The Journal of asthma : official journal of the Association for the Care of Asthma · 2023Trial
- Virtual Care Remuneration Policy and Postdischarge Follow-Up Trends.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- The Vigilance Gradient: Nine Years of Adverse Event Trends in Pediatric Critical Care.Critical care explorations · 2026Observational
- Contributors to perceived workload strain in the pediatric intensive care unit.Intensive care medicine. Paediatric and neonatal · 2026Article
- Article
- Pediatric Radiation Oncology in the Era of COVID-19: A Single Institution Analysis.Cancer reports (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2025Article
- Pediatric healthcare service utilization after the end of COVID-19 state of emergency in Northern Italy: a 6-year quasi-experimental study using interrupted time-series analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Outpatient Antibiotic Use and Treatment Failure Among Children With Pneumonia.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Usability of a Web-Based App for Increasing Adolescent Vaccination in Primary Care Settings: Think-Aloud and Survey Assessment.JMIR formative research · 2024Article
- Utilization of Healthcare Services in Patients with Chronic Diseases under 18 Years Old: Differences and Contributing Factors.Journal of personalized medicine · 2024Article
- Six-year (2016-2022) longitudinal patterns of mental health service utilization rates among children developmentally vulnerable in kindergarten and the COVID-19 pandemic disruption.PLOS digital health · 2024Article
- Quality of life and healthcare utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic are more restricted in chronically ill than in healthy children: a tertiary care children's hospital experience.European journal of pediatrics · 2024Article
- Trends and disparities in deaths among young persons in the US during the COVID-19 pandemic.Annals of epidemiology · 2024Article
- Parent Perceptions of Telemedicine for Acute Pediatric Respiratory Tract Infections: Sequential Mixed Methods Study.JMIR pediatrics and parenting · 2024Article
- Incidence of Pediatric Urinary Tract Infections Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.JAMA network open · 2024Observational
- Effects of COVID-19-targeted non-pharmaceutical interventions on pediatric hospital admissions in North Italian hospitals, 2017 to 2022: a quasi-experimental study interrupted time-series analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Pediatric Preventive Health Care Among North Carolina Children Enrolled in Medicaid.Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society · 2023Article
- School Attendance Following Receipt of Care From a School-Based Health Center.The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine · 2023Article
- Prevalence and Predictors of Using Antibiotics without a Prescription in a Pediatric Population in the United States.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Increase in pediatric recurrent fever evaluations during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in North America.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesHealthcare utilization decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic, likely due to reduced transmission of infections and healthcare avoidance. Though various investigations have described these changing patterns in children, most have analyzed specific care settings. We compared healthcare utilization, prescriptions, and diagnosis patterns in children across the care continuum during the first year of the pandemic with preceding years. STUDY
designUsing national claims data, we compared enrollees under 18 years during the pre-pandemic (January 2016 -mid-March 2020) and pandemic (mid-March 2020 through March 2021) periods. The pandemic was further divided into early (mid-March through mid-June 2020) and middle (mid-June 2020 through March 2021) periods. Utilization was compared using interrupted time series.
resultsThe mean number of pediatric enrollees/month was 2,519,755 in the pre-pandemic and 2,428,912 in the pandemic period. Utilization decreased across all settings in the early pandemic, with the greatest decrease (76.9%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 72.6-80.5%) seen for urgent care visits. Only well visits returned to pre-pandemic rates during the mid-pandemic. Hospitalizations decreased by 43% (95% CI 37.4-48.1) during the early pandemic and were still 26.6% (17.7-34.6) lower mid-pandemic. However, hospitalizations in non-psychiatric facilities for various mental health disorders increased substantially mid-pandemic.
conclusionHealthcare utilization in children dropped substantially during the first year of the pandemic, with a shift away from infectious diseases and a spike in mental health hospitalizations. These findings are important to characterize as we monitor the health of children, can be used to inform healthcare strategies during subsequent COVID-19 surges and/or future pandemics, and may help identify training gaps for pediatric trainees. Subsequent investigations should examine how changes in healthcare utilization impacted the incidence and outcomes of specific diseases.
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