Faculty Collaboration Database

Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Patients with Concussion Presenting to a Specialty Clinic. J Neurotrauma 2021 Oct 15;38(20):2918-2922

Date

08/19/2021

Pubmed ID

34405700

DOI

10.1089/neu.2021.0203

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85117315977 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   7 Citations

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients presenting with concussion at a specialty clinic. This study used a retrospective cohort design to compare participants (n = 3021) with a suspected concussion, including a Pandemic cohort (n = 1139; March 2020-February 2021) and a Pre-Pandemic cohort (n = 1882; March 2019-February 2020). Concussions and patient characteristics including age, sex, days since injury, and injury mechanism were extracted from an electronic health record. There were 39.5% (n = 743) fewer concussions in Pandemic. Pandemic presented to the clinic 25.8 days later (p < 0.001) and were 1.9 years older (p < 0.001) than Pre-Pandemic. Sport-related concussions decreased 59.6% overall for Pandemic. Pandemic was associated with proportional increases of concussions involving recreational activities (odds ratio [OR] = 6.11; p < 0.001), motor vehicle collisions (OR = 1.39; p < 0.001), and falls/assaults (OR = 1.33; p < 0.001). A total of 9.4% (107/1139) of all Pandemic concussion initial clinical visits were performed using telehealth (0% in Pre-Pandemic). Concussion visit volume to a sub-specialty clinic decreased by approximately 40% during the COVID-19 pandemic and patients presented to the clinic nearly 1 month later. The increase in telehealth highlights the potential to expand clinical care outreach during the current and future pandemics or similar restrictive time periods.

Author List

Kontos AP, Eagle SR, Holland CL, Thomas D, Hickey R, Santucci C, Collins MW

Author

Danny G. Thomas MD, MPH Professor in the Pediatrics department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adolescent
Adult
Brain Concussion
Child
Cohort Studies
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Outpatient Clinics, Hospital
Retrospective Studies
Telemedicine
Young Adult