Department of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Fondazione IRCCS Cà Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy.
Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
Pediatr Neurol. 2022 Dec;137:49-53. doi: 10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2022.08.008. Epub 2022 Sep 17.
To evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on evaluations in the pediatric emergency department (ED) because of headache as main symptom.
Number and clinical features of patients evaluated in the pediatric ED of a single site in Milan, Italy, were collected between January 2017 and January 2022. The impact of COVID-19 on evaluation rates was quantified by using the incidence rate ratio (IRR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) between the pandemic (March 2020 to January 2022) and the prepandemic period (January 2017 to February 2020).
During the study period, 890 evaluations were registered: 689 over the prepandemic period and 201 over the pandemic period. Mean age at evaluation was 10 years (range: 1 to 17 years). Evaluation rates per month were 18.1 during the prepandemic period and 8.7 during COVID-19 pandemic, with peaks in autumn and winter months and considerable drops in the summer. The IRR was 0.49 (95% CI, 0.40-0.61). The reduction in evaluation rate was higher for secondary headache (IRR, 0.31; 95% CI, 0.23-0.42) when compared with primary headache (IRR, 0.56; 95% CI, 0.40-0.78).
We found a remarkable reduction in the number of evaluations in the pediatric ED for headache during the pandemic period.
评估 COVID-19 对以头痛为主要症状的儿科急诊 (ED) 评估的影响。
在意大利米兰的一个单站点儿科 ED 收集了 2017 年 1 月至 2022 年 1 月期间评估的患者数量和临床特征。使用发病率比值 (IRR) 和 COVID-19 大流行期间（2020 年 3 月至 2022 年 1 月）与大流行前期间（2017 年 1 月至 2020 年 2 月）之间的 95%置信区间 (CI) 来量化 COVID-19 对评估率的影响。
在研究期间，共登记了 890 次评估：大流行前期间 689 次，大流行期间 201 次。评估时的平均年龄为 10 岁（范围：1 至 17 岁）。大流行前期间每月评估率为 18.1，COVID-19 大流行期间为 8.7，秋季和冬季高峰期，夏季评估率大幅下降。IRR 为 0.49（95%CI，0.40-0.61）。与原发性头痛相比，继发性头痛的评估率下降幅度更大（IRR，0.31；95%CI，0.23-0.42）。
我们发现大流行期间儿科 ED 因头痛而进行的评估数量显著减少。
