UCSF

Background

Daycare and school closures prompted by shelter-in-place orders may have increased opportunities for unintentional ingestions among young children.

Objectives

We examined emergency department (ED) presentations for toxic exposures among young children during the COVID-19 pandemic in the San Francisco Bay Area, which had some of the strictest and most prolonged shelter-in-place policies in the United States.

Methods

We performed a retrospective cross-sectional study of children 0 to 5 years of age who presented with an ED International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision diagnosis code of toxic exposure within a tertiary care hospital system between March 16, 2016 and March 15, 2021. We considered the period after March 16, 2020 to represent the pandemic.

Results

During the pandemic, the absolute number of poisonings among young children remained stable. Overall, ED encounters within this cohort decreased by 55%, which doubled the relative toxic exposure rate per 1000 ED encounters from 4.99 (95% confidence interval [CI] 3.19-5.90) to 9.79 (95% CI 8.09-11.49). Rates of admission, severe medical complications, operating room case requests, and length of stay were not significantly different. Shelter-in-place was associated with significantly higher odds of cannabis ingestion (odds ratio = 2.70, 95% CI 1.60-4.49).

Conclusion

Despite dramatic decreases in overall ED patient volumes, the absolute number and severity of toxic exposures were similar during the pandemic compared with previous years. © 2022 Elsevier Inc.