Mental Health Emergency Department Visits by Children Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To describe pediatric mental health emergency department (ED) visit rates and visit characteristics before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional study of ED visits by children 5-17 years old with a primary mental health diagnosis from March 2018 to February 2021 at a 10-hospital health system and a children's hospital in the Chicago area. We compared demographic and clinical characteristics of children with mental health ED visits before and during the pandemic. We conducted an interrupted time series analysis to determine changes in visit rates.

Results

We identified 8,127 pediatric mental health ED visits (58.5% female, 54.3% White, Not Hispanic/Latino and 42.4% age 13-15). During the pandemic, visits for suicide or self

SUBMITTER: Shankar LG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9164513 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep-Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature