ArticleBMC public health2023
An interrupted time series analysis of trends in opioid-related emergency department visits from pre-COVID-19 pandemic to pandemic, from the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program.
Article in BMC public health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 6 citations in OpenAlex.
- Opioid-related emergency department visits in Saudi Arabia: an interrupted time series analysis of visit patterns pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19.BMJ public health · 2026Article
- Application of Machine Learning to Auto-Code Injury Data in the e-CHIRPP System: Development and Evaluation Study.Online journal of public health informatics · 2025Article
- A mixed methods study on poisoning and injury-related emergency department visits associated with opioids in Canada, 2011 to 2022: from the Canadian hospitals injury reporting and prevention program.BMC public health · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOpioid-related emergency department (ED) visits in Canada increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, but how trends in volume and case severity changed from pre-pandemic times through the pandemic is not known. Trends in ED visits related to specific types of opioids also remain unclear. Our objective was to describe pre-pandemic trends and how they changed with the onset of COVID-19 and thereafter.
methodsBased on data from the Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program, we identified opioid-related ED visits and constructed a time series from March 12, 2018 through March 7, 2021-two pre-COVID periods and one COVID period. We used an interrupted time series (ITS) analysis to examine trends in volume and case severity. We compared medians and means of monthly counts and percentages of severe cases between the periods, by sex, age, and opioid type.
resultsBefore the pandemic, there was an increasing trend in fentanyl-related visits for males, females and 25- to 64-year-olds, and a decreasing trend in heroin-related visits for males and 18- to 64-year-olds. Fentanyl-related visits for 18- to 24-year-olds showed an immediate increase at the start of the pandemic and a decreasing trend during the pandemic. Heroin-related visits for 12- to 17-year-olds had an immediate increase at the start of the pandemic; for 18- to 24-year-olds and 45- to 64-year-olds, the prior decreasing pre-pandemic trend ceased. For pooled opioid-related visits, no significant trend in the percentage of severe cases was observed throughout the entire study period.
conclusionThis study shows that an ITS approach in trend analysis is a valuable supplement to comparisons of before and after measures (with or without controlling seasonal effects). The findings provide evidence on how ED presentations for opioid use evolved in Canada from 2018 to 2021. The results can inform policies designed to reduce opioid-related harm in the context of a public health emergency.
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