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Citation
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Aydın O, Hanalıoğlu D, Ünal B, Güngör E, Kaynak MO, Yiğit H, Mercan UB, Kuzu A, Teksam. Turk. Arch. Pediatr. 2022; 57(4): 453-458. |
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Abstract
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OBJECTIVE: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic affected the healthcare systems worldwide. In this study, we aimed to examine the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on injury-related visits.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 7648 injury-related pediatric emergency department visits between March 11 and June 30, 2018, 2019, and 2020, and com- pared the total number of visits, triage levels, distributions of injury mechanisms, and admission rates during the pandemic in 2020 to the same period in 2018 and 2019.
RESULTS: In the first 4 months of the pandemic, there was a 69.5% drop in all pediatric emergency department visits compared to the previous 2 years. Despite this decrease, the proportion of injury-related pediatric emergency department visits increased from 14% to 20.9% in 2020 (P <.001). There was a 3.8% increase in the frequencies of patients with high triage acuity levels (T1, T2, and T3) and a 3.8% decrease in patients with low triage acuity levels (P <.001). The domestic injury rate increased from 40% to 60% during the pandemic period (P <.001). Hospitalization rates increased from 6% to 11.5% and admission to intensive care units increased from 0.9% to 3.3%. The differences were statistically significant (P <.001). Visits due to burn increased from 2.7% to 5.2% (P <.001), poisoning from 3.4% to 5.5% (P <.001), bicycle accidents from 3.3% to 6.8% (P <.001), while injuries due to motor vehicle accidents decreased from 2.6% to 1.3% (P =.004) and sports injuries decreased from 8% to 2.1% (P <.001).
CONCLUSION: This study revealed that despite the significant decrease in total pediatric emer- gency department visits, percentages of injury-related visits increased during the pandemic.
Keywords: CoViD-19-Road-Traffic
Language: en |