Citation

Sethuraman U, Stankovic C, Singer A, Vitale L, Krouse CB, Cloutier D, Donoghue L, Klein J, Kannikeswaran N. Burns 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.burns.2020.08.004

PMID

32919800

Abstract

Unintentional burns are a leading cause of injury related deaths in young children. Burn visits to the pediatric Emergency Department (ED) pose a significant financial burden on the health care system [1,2]. Low socioeconomic status, young age, parental education, and overcrowding are known risk factors for burns [3]. Our tertiary care pediatric hospital is a burn referral center for our state with historically 600 ED visits and 300 admissions for burn care each year. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in school and daycare center closures in our state for nearly 10 weeks. We studied the impact of the Stay at Home (SHO) executive order during the COVID-19 pandemic on burn visits in children at our institution.

We analyzed all burn visits to our center by children ≤ 21 years of age between March 16th 2020 and June 3rd 2020 when schools were closed and the "Stay at Home order" (SHO) was executed, and compared this to the same period in 2019 (non SHO). We also collected data on the total number of overall ED visits during the two study periods.

We found a 66.6% reduction in overall ED visits (SHO: 7871 vs non SHO: 23,521) and a 35% reduction in burn visits (SHO: 74 vs non SHO: 114) during SHO period. However, similar to a previous report [4], burn visits contributed to a higher proportion of total ED visits during SHO compared to non SHO (0.94% vs 0.48%, 95% CI: 0.2 to 0.7). We speculate that this increase might have been secondary to closure of most pediatrician offices for direct in-person visits resulting in children presenting to the ED for even minor burns. We found no difference in the mean age between the two study periods (5.3 ± 4.8 vs 4.3 years ± 4.2; difference: 1, 95% CI: 0.3 to -2.3). Scald burns were the most common type of injury during both study periods. However, house fires proportion was significantly higher (16.2% vs 3.5%, 95% CI: 2.9-19.9) during SHO compared to the non SHO period. Although the exact reasons for observed increase in house fires are unclear...

Language: en