Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Dec:137:49-53.
doi: 10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2022.08.008. Epub 2022 Sep 17.

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

Alberto M Cappellari  1 , Stefania Margiotta  2 , Gaia Bruschi  2 , Gianfranco Alicandro  3 , Massimo Luca Castellazzi  4 , Alessia Rocchi  4 , Erica Venturelli  2 , Giuseppe Bertolozzi  4
Affiliations

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

Alberto M Cappellari et al. Pediatr Neurol. 2022 Dec.

Abstract

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).

Results: During the study period, 890 evaluations were registered: 689 over the prepandemic period and 201 over the pandemic period. Mean age at evaluation was 10 years (range: 1 to 17 years). Evaluation rates per month were 18.1 during the prepandemic period and 8.7 during COVID-19 pandemic, with peaks in autumn and winter months and considerable drops in the summer. The IRR was 0.49 (95% CI, 0.40-0.61). The reduction in evaluation rate was higher for secondary headache (IRR, 0.31; 95% CI, 0.23-0.42) when compared with primary headache (IRR, 0.56; 95% CI, 0.40-0.78).

Conclusions: We found a remarkable reduction in the number of evaluations in the pediatric ED for headache during the pandemic period.

Keywords: Children; Emergency department; Headache; Infectious diseases; Neurological disorders; SARS-CoV-2.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE
FIGURE
Monthly trend in the number of evaluations in the pediatric emergency department because of headache between January 2017 and January 2022. Dots indicate number of admissions. Lines indicate fitted values (continuous line) and 95% confidence band (dashed lines). The gray area highlights the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic period in Italy (from March 2020 to January 2022).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Papetti L., Capuano A., Tarantino S., et al. Headache as an emergency in children and adolescents. Curr Pain Headache Rep. 2015;19:3. - PubMed
    1. Scagni P., Pagliero R. Headache in an Italian pediatric emergency department. J Headache Pain. 2008;9:83–87. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lewis D.W., Qureshi F. Acute headache in children and adolescents presenting to the emergency department. Headache. 2000;40:200–203. - PubMed
    1. Walter S.M., Laderman M., Polk P. Pediatric headache attributed to infection. Semin Pediatr Neurol. 2021;40 - PubMed
    1. Lamberghini F., Testai F.D. COVID-2019 fundamentals. J Am Dent Assoc. 2021;152:354–363. - PMC - PubMed