Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Headache Evaluations in the Pediatric Emergency Department

Status

Completed

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Observational

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT06295003

Enrollment

700

Registered

2024-03-06

Start date

2022-04-30

Completion date

2022-05-30

Last updated

2024-03-06

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

COVID-19, Emergency Service, Hospital, Headache Disorders

Brief summary

Background: To evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on evaluations in the pediatric emergency department (ED) because of headache as main symptom. Methods: Number and clinical features of patients evaluated in the pediatric ED of a single site in Milan,Italy, were collected between January 2017 and January 2022. The impact of COVID-19 on evaluation rates was quantified by using the incidence rate ratio (IRR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) between the pandemic (March 2020 to January 2022) and the prepandemic period (January 2017 to February 2020).

Interventions

None listed

Study design

Observational model

COHORT

Time perspective

RETROSPECTIVE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

2 Years to 18 Years

Inclusion criteria

* range of age: 2 - 18 years * sex: all * headache as main symptom

Exclusion criteria

* headache in the context of head trauma, because of different diagnostic-care in Pediatric Emergency Department

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame
During the study period, 890 evaluations were registered: the number of partecipants was 689 over the prepandemic period and 201 over the pandemic period. Mean age at evaluation was 10 years (range: 1 to 17 years).	the pandemic (March 2020 to January 2022) and the prepandemic period (January 2017 to February 2020).

Secondary

Measure	Time frame
Evaluation rates per month were 18.1 during the prepandemic period and 8.7 during COVID-19 pandemic, with peaks in autumn and winter and drops in summer. The reduction in evaluation rate was higher for secondary headache when compared with primary one	the pandemic (March 2020 to January 2022) and the prepandemic period (January 2017 to February 2020).

Countries

Italy

Outcome results