Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on emergency department attendances for young people

Abstract

Introduction There are concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic is having an indirect negative impact on young people. We aimed to assess the impact of the pandemic on emergency department (ED) presentations and admissions. Design We analysed ED presentations and admissions from a 5-year period (April 2016-February 2021). An interrupted time series analysis was used to estimate the presentations and admissions that would have been seen in year 5 without the pandemic using the data from years 1 to 4. These estimations were used to calculate the difference between the expected and the observed presentations and admissions during the pandemic year. Results There were 166 459 presentations over 5 years. There was a 38.1% (95% CI 33.9% to 42.3%) reduction in presentations during the pandemic with no variation by sex, age, deprivation or ethnicity. Largest reductions were associated with children being home schooled rather than with lockdowns. For admissions, there was a 23.4% (17.4% to 29.4%) reduction, less for 5-17 year age group. Infection and asthma/wheeze presentations reduced by around 60% with smaller reductions for mental health and trauma. There was no change for surgical presentations, burns/scolds or allergic reactions. There was an increase in females aged 11-17 years presenting with mental health issues during the pandemic. Conclusions During the pandemic, there was a substantial reduction in both ED presentations and admissions. The differential impact on specific presentations suggests this was due to the impact of social distancing and reduced social mixing rather than widening of health inequality or increased barriers to care. Trial registration number NCT04893122.