@article{ref1,
title="The impact of COVID-19 on infant maltreatment emergency department and inpatient medical encounters",
journal="Journal of pediatrics",
year="2023",
author="Rebbe, Rebecca and Reddy, Julia and Kuelbs, Cynthia L. and Huang, Jeannie and Putnam-Hornstein, Emily",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="OBJECTIVE: To assess the counts of infant maltreatment-related medical encounters at a large medical system during a 21-month span of the COVID-19 pandemic. <br><br>METHODS: Retrospective data for this study came from all inpatient and emergency department medical encounters for infants from January 1, 2016, through November 30, 2021, at a single children's hospital system in California. Distributions of medical encounters were tabulated and plotted over time. Interrupted time series models were used to evaluate changes in child maltreatment medical encounters. <br><br>RESULTS: Medical encounters for infants with child maltreatment diagnoses increased following the onset of COVID-19. Monthly counts of encounters with indicated maltreatment trended upward following the start of the pandemic. Interrupted time series models showed the count of maltreatment encounters increased 64% with the onset of COVID-19. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: We found an increase in infant maltreatment medical encounters during a 21-month period following the onset of COVID-19. These findings suggest that the pandemic may have adversely affected the safety of infants and ongoing work is needed to understand better the pandemic impacts on child maltreatment.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0022-3476",
doi="10.1016/j.jpeds.2023.113582",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2023.113582"
}