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COVID-19 related reduction in pediatric emergency healthcare utilization – a concerning trend

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Pediatrics, September 2020
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (91st percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (95th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
2 news outlets
policy
1 policy source
twitter
16 X users

Citations

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163 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
230 Mendeley
Title
COVID-19 related reduction in pediatric emergency healthcare utilization – a concerning trend
Published in
BMC Pediatrics, September 2020
DOI 10.1186/s12887-020-02303-6
Pubmed ID
Authors

Christian Dopfer, Martin Wetzke, Anna Zychlinsky Scharff, Frank Mueller, Frank Dressler, Ulrich Baumann, Michael Sasse, Gesine Hansen, Alexandra Jablonka, Christine Happle

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted healthcare systems worldwide. In addition to the direct impact of the virus on patient morbidity and mortality, the effect of lockdown strategies on health and healthcare utilization have become apparent. Little is known on the effect of the pandemic on pediatric and adolescent medicine. We examined the impact of the pandemic on pediatric emergency healthcare utilization. We conducted a monocentric, retrospective analysis of n = 5,424 pediatric emergency department visits between January 1st and April 19th of 2019 and 2020, and compared healthcare utilization during the pandemic in 2020 to the same period in 2019. In the four weeks after lockdown in Germany began, we observed a massive drop of 63.8% in pediatric emergency healthcare utilization (mean daily visits 26.8 ± SEM 1.5 in 2019 vs. 9.7 ± SEM 1 in 2020, p < 0.005). This drop in cases occurred for both communicable and non-communicable diseases. A larger proportion of patients under one year old (daily mean of 16.6% ±SEM 1.4 in 2019 vs. 23.1% ±SEM 1.7 in 2020, p < 0.01) and of cases requiring hospitalisation (mean of 13.9% ±SEM 1.6 in 2019 vs. 26.6% ±SEM 3.3 in 2020, p < 0.001) occurred during the pandemic. During the analysed time periods, few intensive care admissions and no fatalities occurred. Our data illustrate a significant decrease in pediatric emergency department visits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Public outreach is needed to encourage parents and guardians to seek medical attention for pediatric emergencies in spite of the pandemic.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 16 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 230 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 230 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 29 13%
Other 28 12%
Student > Bachelor 21 9%
Researcher 16 7%
Student > Postgraduate 13 6%
Other 44 19%
Unknown 79 34%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 75 33%
Nursing and Health Professions 26 11%
Psychology 11 5%
Economics, Econometrics and Finance 5 2%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 5 2%
Other 21 9%
Unknown 87 38%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 30. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 24 January 2022.
All research outputs
#1,186,717
of 23,881,329 outputs
Outputs from BMC Pediatrics
#107
of 3,143 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#33,722
of 402,567 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Pediatrics
#4
of 74 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,881,329 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 95th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,143 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.8. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 402,567 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 74 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its contemporaries.