Tsiachristas Apostolos, Holland Josephine, Guo Boliang, Chitsabesan Prathiba, Sayal Kapil, Abdul Pari Anees Ahmed
Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences & Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, UK.
Mental Health and Clinical Neurosciences, Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham, UK.
BJPsych Open. 2024 Mar 21;10(2):e69. doi: 10.1192/bjo.2024.9.
During the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, children and young people (CYP) faced significant restrictions. The virus and mitigation approaches significantly impacted how health services could function and be safely delivered.
To investigate the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on CYP psychiatric admission trends during lockdown 1 (started 23 Mar 2020) and lockdown 2 (started 5 Nov 2020) of the COVID-19 pandemic in England.
Routinely collected, retrospective English administrative data regarding psychiatric hospital admissions, length of stay and patient demographic factors were analysed using an interrupted time series analysis (ITSA) to estimate the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns 1 and 2 on service use trends. We analysed data of 6250 CYP (up to 18 years of age) using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis with Newey-West standard errors to handle autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity.
Psychiatric hospital admissions for CYP significantly fell during lockdown 1, and then fell even further during lockdown 2. A greater proportion of admissions during lockdown were out of area or to independent sector units. During lockdown, the average age of CYP admitted was higher, and a greater proportion were female. There was also a significant increase in the proportion of looked-after children and CYP from the most socioeconomically deprived areas admitted during lockdown 2.
During both lockdowns, fewer CYP had psychiatric admissions. The subsequent rise in admissions for more socioeconomically deprived CYP and looked-after children suggests that these CYP may have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, or overlooked during earlier phases.
在新冠疫情的初始阶段，儿童和青少年面临了重大限制。病毒以及缓解措施对医疗服务的运作方式和安全提供产生了重大影响。
调查新冠疫情期间英国第一次封锁（始于2020年3月23日）和第二次封锁（始于2020年11月5日）期间，新冠疫情封锁措施对儿童和青少年精神科住院趋势的影响。
使用中断时间序列分析（ITSA）对常规收集的、关于精神科住院、住院时长和患者人口统计学因素的回顾性英国行政数据进行分析，以估计第一次和第二次新冠疫情封锁措施对服务使用趋势的影响。我们使用普通最小二乘法（OLS）回归分析以及Newey-West标准误来处理自相关和异方差性，对6250名18岁及以下儿童和青少年的数据进行了分析。
在第一次封锁期间，儿童和青少年的精神科住院人数显著下降，在第二次封锁期间下降得更多。封锁期间更高比例的住院是跨地区的或入住独立部门单位。在封锁期间，住院儿童和青少年的平均年龄更大，女性比例更高。在第二次封锁期间，受照料儿童以及来自社会经济最贫困地区的儿童和青少年的住院比例也显著增加。
在两次封锁期间，精神科住院的儿童和青少年都减少了。随后，社会经济较贫困的儿童和青少年以及受照料儿童的住院人数上升，这表明这些儿童和青少年可能受到疫情的影响更大，或者在早期阶段被忽视了。
