Multicenter Study of the Impact of COVID-19 Shelter-In-Place on Tertiary Hospital-based Care for Pediatric Neurologic Disease

Abstract

Objective: To describe changes in hospital-based care for children with neurologic diagnoses during the initial 6 weeks following regional Coronavirus 2019 Shelter-in-Place orders. Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study of 7 US and Canadian pediatric tertiary care institutions included emergency and inpatient encounters with a neurologic primary discharge diagnosis code in the initial 6 weeks of Shelter-in-Place (COVID-SiP), compared to the same period during the prior 3 years (Pre-COVID). Patient demographics, encounter length, and neuroimaging and electroencephalography use were extracted from the medical record. Results: 27,900 encounters over 4 years were included. Compared to Pre-COVID, there was a 54% reduction in encounters during Shelter-in-Place. COVID-SiP patients were younger (median 5 years vs 7 years). The incidence of encounters for migraine fell by 72%, and encounters for acute diagnoses of status epilepticus, infantile spasms, and traumatic brain injury dropped by 53%, 55%, and 56%, respectively. There was an increase in hospital length of stay, relative utilization of intensive care, and diagnostic testing (long-term electroencephalography, brain MRI, and head CT (all P