engleski

School children and youth in emergency medical service before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

The aim of the research was to determine the health problems of school children and youth seeking health-care in the prehospital emergency medical service (PEMS) and to compare differences before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research was conducted in the Institute of emergency medicine of the Vukovar-Srijem County. Data including number of examinations, number of out-patient clinic examinations, number of field interventions, emergency priorities and main diagnoses for patients aged 7 to 19 years in the years 2018 and 2021 were collected, compared and analyzed. Results showed that school children and youth accounted for 5, 5% of patients in the PEMS in the pandemic period and for 6, 8% of patients in the prepandemic period (p<0, 001). Number of examinations dropped significantly in the pandemic period since patients avoided unnecessary health examinations. This is supported by significant decrease of unurgent patients of school age (third priority) (56, 5% vs. 64, 1%) and significant increase of urgent patients of school age (first priority) (10, 8% vs. 8, 8%) during the pandemic period (p<0, 001). Furthermore, there was a significant drop of out-patient clinic examinations (70, 4% vs. 75, 7%) and the increase of field emergency medical interventions (29, 6% vs. 24, 3%) in the pandemic period (p=0, 001). The highest share of examinations of school children and youth in PEMS are related to injuries, accounting for 19, 8% in pandemic period and 18, 9% in prepandemic period (p=0, 558). During the pandemic period, there was an increase in the number of examinations of school children and youth related to psychiatric disorders (5, 9% vs. 5, 0%), abuse of addictive substances (2, 8% vs. 2, 1%), alcohol abuse (2, 0% vs. 1, 7%), illegal drug abuse (0, 4% vs. 0, 1%) and medication abuse (0, 4% vs. 0, 2%), but these were not significant. However, the pandemic brought significant increase in the number of examinations of school children and youth related to psychotic disorders (0, 5% vs. 0, 06%, p=0, 009) and physical violence (0, 4% vs. 0, 06%, p=0, 040), while there was no significant difference for anxiety/depression disorders, stress reactions and disorders of conduct. In conclusion, attention should be brought upon mental health and physical violence that showed significant increase in emergency medical conditions of school children and youth.

school children ; youth ; COVID-19 pandemic ; emergency medical service

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