The impact of stay-at-home orders on the rate of emergency department child maltreatment diagnoses

Date

2022

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Child Abuse & Neglect

Abstract

There is limited data regarding the rates and severity of child maltreatment in medical settings during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the reports are somewhat contradictory. Objective To examine the rates of emergency department (ED) child maltreatment (CM) diagnosis before and after the California statewide stay-at-home order, as well as potential disparities by age, gender, race/ethnicity, and Medicaid status. Methods A retrospective pre-post interrupted time series was conducted using data from the electronic health records of children (<18 years) with at least one emergency department visit between January 1, 2019 and September 30, 2021. Enactment of the stay-at-home order in California, March 2020 was used to determine a change in trend of rates of diagnosis of CM in the ED. Results Overall the study included 407,228 pediatric ED visits. There was a significant change in the percentage of CM visits immediately after the stay-at-home order, followed by small month to month decreases returning to near pre-stay-at-home order levels. This significant increase was driven by higher risk for children <4 years old. The increased rate of CM in the first month after the stay-at-home order was also elevated for female, Black, and Hispanic children. Conclusions Our results indicated the rates of CM diagnoses in the ED doubled after the March 2020 stay-at-home order in California. Additionally, our findings suggest that some children may be at higher risk than others, which supports the importance of social safety nets for children in times of national emergency.

Description

Keywords

COVID-19, child maltreatment, emergency department, reports, statistics, risk factors

Citation

Negriff, S., Huang, B. Z., Sharp, A. L., & DiGangi, M. (2022). The impact of stay-at-home orders on the rate of emergency department child maltreatment diagnoses. Child Abuse & Neglect, 132, 105821.

DOI