Demographics and self-harm mechanism of patients attended by HEMS during two 61-day periods: 1 March to 30 April 2019 (control) and 2020 (COVID-19)
| DSH-I patient encounters | Control | COVID-19 | OR (95% CI) | P value |
| Patient encounters (n) | 26 | 43 | – | – |
| Male sex (n (%)) | 16 (61.5) | 29 (65.9) | – | 0.80 |
| Age/years (mean (±SD)) | 40.0 (±21.2) | 42.4 (±17.9) | – | 0.62 |
| Hanging (n (%)) | 6 (23.1) | 17 (39.5) | 2.2 (0.7 to 6.9) | 0.19 |
| Fall >2 m (n (%)) | 3 (11.5) | 10 (23.3) | 2.1 (0.6 to 7.9) | 0.34 |
| Wound (n (%)) | 8 (30.8) | 8 (18.6) | 0.5 (0.2 to 1.5) | 0.26 |
| Overdose (n (%)) | 7 (26.9) | 6 (14.0) | 0.4 (0.1 to 1.5) | 0.21 |
| Other (n (%)) | 2 (7.7) | 2 (4.7) | 0.6 (0.1 to 4.0) | 0.63 |
| Severe DSH-I | ||||
| Patient encounters (n) | 5 | 18 | – | – |
| Hanging (n (% of hanging))* | 2 (33.3) | 11 (64.7) | 3.7 (0.6 to 22.3) | 0.34 |
| Fall >2 m (n (% of fall >2 m)) | 0 | 3 (30.0) | ∞ (0.2 to ∞) | 0.53 |
| Wound (n (% of wound)) | 1 (12.5) | 2 (25.0) | 2.3 (0.2 to 38.0) | 1.00 |
| Overdose (n (% of overdose)) | 1 (14.3) | 2 (33.3) | 3.0 (0.3 to 49.7) | 0.56 |
| Other (n (% of other)) | 1 (50.0) | 0 | 0.0 (0.0 to 9.0) | 1.00 |
| Total (n (% of DSH-I)) | 5 (19.2) | 18 (41.9) | 3.0 (0.9 to 8.4) | 0.07 |
Other: mechanisms that if listed may affect patient anonymity.
*The percentages reported in this section are the proportion of all DSH-I patient encounters for each mechanism that were classified as ‘severe’; for example, in the control period, two out of six (33.3%) hangings were ‘severe’.
DSH-I, deliberate self-harm incident.