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Lifestyle changes during the COVID-19 pandemic have been shown to be associated with a change in trauma patterns with regard to motor vehicle collisions, assaults and suicide attempts.1–3 We investigated changes in ED visits in the USA for injuries related to consumer products before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System database collects information on non-violent/non-motor vehicle-related trauma from approximately 100 EDs across the USA, allowing national estimates of injuries. We obtained 2019 and 2020 data and used the key events to divide the pandemic into three intervals: first interval starting 20 January 2020, when Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the first COVID-19 case in the USA until 12 March 2020; second interval starting 13 March 2020, when a national state of emergency was declared and lockdowns began until 19 April 2020; third interval starting 20 April 2020, when Texas became the first state to start a phased reopening of economy until the end of 2020. We applied t-test and Pearson’s χ2 test to determine the …
Footnotes
Handling editor Jason E Smith
Twitter @NathanShawMD
Contributors BN and BNB conceived the study idea and plan. BN obtained data and performed the statistical analyses. BN and BA drafted the manuscript. All authors contributed to the manuscript and substantially to its revision. All authors critically reviewed and approved the manuscript. BN takes responsibility for the manuscript as a whole and acts as the guarantor.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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