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

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

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).

Inclusion Criteria:

• range of age: 2 - 18 years
• sex: all
• headache as main symptom

Exclusion Criteria:

• headache in the context of head trauma, because of different diagnostic-care in Pediatric Emergency Department