ArticleDisaster medicine and public health preparedness2022
Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Musculoskeletal Care in the Emergency Room.
Article in Disaster medicine and public health preparedness, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Gender disparities in hospital admission patterns during the COVID-19 health emergency: a systematic review.BMC public health · 2026Pooled it
- Achilles Tendinopathy: Comorbidity Profile and Incidence From the TriNetX Network.Medical research archives · 2026Article
- Traumatic spinal cord injury: A four-year study in Puerto Rico.The journal of spinal cord medicine · 2025Article
- A study of traumatic brain injury in Puerto Rico.The journal of the International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine · 2025Article
- Analysis of the Prognosis Outcomes and Treatment Delay Among ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction Patients in Emergency Department Based on the Presence of Symptoms Suggestive of COVID-19.International journal of health policy and management · 2024Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveStudy the effect of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on emergency room (ER) utilization for musculoskeletal (MSK) complaints.
methodsData from ER encounters in a teaching hospital for years 2019 and 2020 were extracted from an electronic database. The ICD-10-CM codes were used to assign the primary diagnosis. Joinpoint regression was applied to a time-series to detect changes in daily encounters (all-cause and MSK). Total number and median daily encounters were calculated by year, sex, age groups, and diagnostic codes for each year.
resultsOverlapping intervals within March 2020 showed drops of 8.1 all-cause encounters per day (95% CI: 4.8-11.5), and 1.2 MSK encounters per day (95% CI: 0.8-1.7), resulting in net losses for the year of 33.2% for all-cause and 35.8% for MSK encounters. Reductions were observed for both sexes and all age groups. MSK codes with largest declines were low back pain, joint pain, and limb pain.
conclusionThe COVID-19 pandemic resulted in major reductions in all-cause and MSK encounters in the ER of an academic hospital probably due to governmental restrictions and a change in patients behaviors. Persistence of the observed reduction suggests that patients requiring ER services delayed seeking care for MSK and other health conditions.
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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.