Reduced Admissions in the Children’s Emergency Room during Coronavirus‑19 Pandemic in the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus Disease (COVID‑19), the novel global pandemic that was first reported in Wuhan, China, in 2019, and subsequently in Nigeria in 2020, and its negative impact on child health has been receiving attention in the past years. One such impact was the reduction in hospital admissions during lockdown. Aim: This study set out to evaluate the effect of the COVID‑19 pandemic on the children’s emergency ward attendance from January to July 2020 and that of the preceding year. Materials and Methods: Hospital records of admissions from January to July 2019–2020 were extracted and exported into IBM SSPS 24 for Mac. The diagnosis was coded using the international classification of diseases. The complex diagnoses were recoded based on the severity or chronologically important ones. Results: There was 6.6% fewer admissions in 2020 compared to 2019 (P = 0.009). The duration of illness prior to presentation, cases of acute respiratory infection, severe malnutrition, and gastroenteritis was higher in 2020. Conclusion: This study showed the impact of COVID‑19 on child health vis‑à‑vis delay in hospital presentation, reduced hospital admissions, increase in various illnesses when compared to the preceding year as a result of increase in the risk factors that would ordinarily have been mitigated pre‑COVID‑19.