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Injury-Related Emergency Department Visits During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Introduction On March 13, 2020, the U.S. declared coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to be a national emergency. As communities adopted mitigation strategies, there were potentially changes in the trends of… Click to show full abstract

Introduction On March 13, 2020, the U.S. declared coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to be a national emergency. As communities adopted mitigation strategies, there were potentially changes in the trends of injuries treated in emergency department (EDs). This study provides national estimates of injury-related ED visits in the U.S. before and during the pandemic. Methods A secondary retrospective cohort study was conducted using trained, on-site hospital coders collecting data for injury-related ED cases from medical records from a nationally representative sample of 66 U.S. hospital EDs. Injury ED visit estimates the year before the pandemic (January 1, 2019–December 31, 2019) were compared to estimates the year of pandemic declaration (January 1, 2020–December 31, 2020) for overall nonfatal injury-related ED visits, motor vehicle, falls-related, self-harm-, assault-related, and poisoning-related ED visits. Results There was an estimated 1.7 million (25%) decrease in nonfatal injury-related ED visits during April through June 2020 compared with the same timeframe in 2019. Similar decreases were observed for ED visits due to motor vehicle-related injuries (199,329; 23.3%) and falls-related injuries (497,971; 25.1%). Monthly 2020 estimates remained relatively in line with 2019 estimates for self-harm-, assault-, and poisoning-related ED visits. Conclusions These findings provide updates for clinical and public health practitioners on the changing profile of injury-related ED visits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding the short- and long-term impacts of the pandemic is important to prevent future injuries.

Keywords: visits covid; injury; injury related; emergency department; related visits

Journal Title: American Journal of Preventive Medicine
Year Published: 2022

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