Emergency department visits and hospital admissions for suicidal ideation, self-poisoning and self-harm among adolescents in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic

CMAJ. 2023 Sep 18;195(36):E1221-E1230. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.220507.ABSTRACTBACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic had profound effects on the mental wellbeing of adolescents. We sought to evaluate pandemic-related changes in health care use for suicidal ideation, self-poisoning and self-harm.METHODS: We obtained data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information on emergency department visits and hospital admissions from April 2015 to March 2022 among adolescents aged 10-18 years in Canada. We calculated the quarterly percentage of emergency department visits and hospital admissions for a composite outcome comprising suicidal ideation, self-poisoning and self-harm relative to all-cause emergency department visits and hospital admissions. We used interrupted time-series methods to compare changes in levels and trends of these outcomes between the prepandemic (Apr. 1, 2015-Mar. 1, 2020) and pandemic (Apr. 1, 2020-Mar. 31, 2022) periods.RESULTS: The average quarterly percentage of emergency department visits for suicidal ideation, self-poisoning and self-harm relative to all-cause emergency department visits was 2.30% during the prepandemic period and 3.52% during the pandemic period. The level (0.08%, 95% confidence interval [CI] -0.79% to 0.95%) or trend (0.07% per quarter, 95% CI -0.14% to 0.28%) of this percentage did not change significantly between periods. The average quarterly percentage of hospital admissions for the composite outcome relative to all-cause admissions was 7...
Source: cmaj - Category: General Medicine Authors: Source Type: research