TY - JOUR
T1 - SARS-CoV-2 pandemic impact on pediatric emergency rooms
T2 - A multicenter study
AU - CICERO Group
AU - Matera, Luigi
AU - Nenna, Raffaella
AU - Rizzo, Valentina
AU - Morini, Francesca Ardenti
AU - Banderali, Giuseppe
AU - Calvani, Mauro
AU - Calvi, Matteo
AU - Cozzi, Giorgio
AU - Fabiani, Elisabetta
AU - Falsaperla, Raffaele
AU - Kantar, Ahmad
AU - Lanari, Marcello
AU - Lubrano, Riccardo
AU - Messini, Beatrice
AU - Niccoli, Antonio Augusto
AU - Scoppi, Pietro
AU - Tipo, Vincenzo
AU - Midulla, Fabio
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/12/1
Y1 - 2020/12/1
N2 - From March 9 to May 3, 2020, lockdown was declared in Italy due to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic. Our aim was to evaluate how the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and related preventive strategies affected pediatric emergency rooms (ERs) during this period. We performed a retrospective cohort multicenter study, comparing the lockdown period to the corresponding period in 2019. We examined 15 Italian pediatric ERs in terms of visit rates, specific diagnoses (grouped as air communicable diseases and non-air communicable diseases), and triage categories. During the lockdown period, ER admissions decreased by 81% compared to 2019 (52,364 vs. 10,112). All ER specific diagnoses decreased in 2020 and this reduction was significantly higher for air communicable diseases (25,462 vs. 2934, p < 0.001). Considering the triage category, red codes remained similar (1% vs. 1%), yellow codes increased (11.2% vs. 22.3%), and green codes decreased (80.3% vs. 69.5%). We can speculate that social distancing and simple hygiene measures drastically reduced the spread of air communicable diseases. The increase in yellow codes may have been related to a delay in primary care and, consequently, in ER admissions.
AB - From March 9 to May 3, 2020, lockdown was declared in Italy due to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic. Our aim was to evaluate how the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and related preventive strategies affected pediatric emergency rooms (ERs) during this period. We performed a retrospective cohort multicenter study, comparing the lockdown period to the corresponding period in 2019. We examined 15 Italian pediatric ERs in terms of visit rates, specific diagnoses (grouped as air communicable diseases and non-air communicable diseases), and triage categories. During the lockdown period, ER admissions decreased by 81% compared to 2019 (52,364 vs. 10,112). All ER specific diagnoses decreased in 2020 and this reduction was significantly higher for air communicable diseases (25,462 vs. 2934, p < 0.001). Considering the triage category, red codes remained similar (1% vs. 1%), yellow codes increased (11.2% vs. 22.3%), and green codes decreased (80.3% vs. 69.5%). We can speculate that social distancing and simple hygiene measures drastically reduced the spread of air communicable diseases. The increase in yellow codes may have been related to a delay in primary care and, consequently, in ER admissions.
KW - Air communicable infections
KW - Emergency rooms
KW - Lockdown measures
KW - Pandemic
KW - Pediatric
KW - SARS-CoV-2
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U2 - 10.3390/ijerph17238753
DO - 10.3390/ijerph17238753
M3 - Article
C2 - 33255697
AN - SCOPUS:85096982735
VL - 17
SP - 1
EP - 12
JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
SN - 1661-7827
IS - 23
M1 - 8753
ER -