@article{ref1,
title="Toxic exposures among young children one year into the covid-19 pandemic: a retrospective review of three San Francisco Bay area emergency departments",
journal="Journal of emergency medicine",
year="2022",
author="Devlin, Gabriel and Addo, Newton and Shaahinfar, Ashkon and Chen, Carol C. and Grupp-Phelan, Jacqueline and Kornblith, Aaron E.",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Daycare and school closures prompted by shelter-in-place orders may have increased opportunities for unintentional ingestions among young children. <br><br>OBJECTIVES: We examined emergency department (ED) presentations for toxic exposures among young children during the COVID-19 pandemic in the San Francisco Bay Area, which had some of the strictest and most prolonged shelter-in-place policies in the United States. <br><br>METHODS: We performed a retrospective cross-sectional study of children 0 to 5 years of age who presented with an ED International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision diagnosis code of toxic exposure within a tertiary care hospital system between March 16, 2016 and March 15, 2021. We considered the period after March 16, 2020 to represent the pandemic. <br><br>RESULTS: During the pandemic, the absolute number of poisonings among young children remained stable. Overall, ED encounters within this cohort decreased by 55%, which doubled the relative toxic exposure rate per 1000 ED encounters from 4.99 (95% confidence interval [CI] 3.19-5.90) to 9.79 (95% CI 8.09-11.49). Rates of admission, severe medical complications, operating room case requests, and length of stay were not significantly different. Shelter-in-place was associated with significantly higher odds of cannabis ingestion (odds ratio = 2.70, 95% CI 1.60-4.49). <br><br>CONCLUSION: Despite dramatic decreases in overall ED patient volumes, the absolute number and severity of toxic exposures were similar during the pandemic compared with previous years. © 2022 Elsevier Inc.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0736-4679",
doi="10.1016/j.jemermed.2022.09.035",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jemermed.2022.09.035"
}