בשל הגנת זכויות יוצרים מובא להלן תקציר המאמר. ניתן לקרוא את הטקסט המלא בקישור בהתאם לספרייה הרפואית הזמינה לך
Myran DT, Gaudreault A, McCarthy SDS, Pugliese M, Tanuseputro P, Finkelstein Y. Unintentional pediatric poisonings before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: A population-based study. Am J Emerg Med. 2024 Feb;76:185-192. doi: 10.1016/j.ajem.2023.11.042. Epub 2023 Dec 1. PMID: 38086185.
Abstract
Objectives: The impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on unintentional pediatric poisonings is unclear. We examined changes in emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations for poisonings before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We compared changes in cannabis vs non-cannabis poisoning events given the recent legalization of cannabis in October 2018 and cannabis edibles in January 2020.
Study design: Interrupted time-series (ITS) analyses of changes in population-level ED visits and hospitalizations for poisonings in children aged 0-9 years in Ontario, Canada (annual population of 1.4 million children), over two time periods: pre-pandemic (January 2010-March 2020) and pandemic (April 2020-December 2021).
Results: Overall, there were 28,292 ED visits and 2641 hospitalizations for unintentional poisonings. During the pandemic, poisonings per 100,000 person-years decreased by 14.6% for ED visits (40.15 pre- vs. 34.29 during) and increased by 35.9% for hospitalizations (3.48 pre- vs. 4.73 during). ED visits dropped immediately (Incidence Rate Ratio [IRR], 0.76; 95% CI, 0.70-0.82) at the onset of the pandemic, followed by a gradual return to baseline (quarterly change, IRR 1.04, 95%CI 1.03-1.06), while hospitalizations had an immediate increase (IRR 1.34; 95% CI, 1.08-1.66) and no gradual change. The only increase in poisonings was for cannabis which had a 10.7-fold for ED visits (0.45 to 4.83 per 100,000 person-years) and a 12.1-fold increase for hospitalizations (0.16 to 1.91 per 100,000 person-years). Excluding cannabis, there was no overall increase in poisoning hospitalizations.
Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic was not associated with increases in any type of unintentional pediatric poisonings, with the exception of cannabis poisonings. Increased cannabis poisonings may be explained by the legalization of non-medical cannabis edibles in Canada in January 2020.