Impact of COVID-19 on Acute Care Hospitalizations for Suicidality.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic contributed to the public health crisis for pediatric mental health. We characterized our local patient population presenting with suicidality or suicide attempts before and after the pandemic by examining 1. frequencies of hospitalizations for suicidality to determine whether they differed by age, legal sex, race and ethnicity, or socioeconomic status; 2. average length of stay and discharge disposition; 3. 7-, 30-, and 365-day reutilization rates; and 4. admission trends during COVID-19 surges. METHODS: Retrospective data between March 2018 and March 2022 was analyzed, including patients ages 10 to 17 years hospitalized for either suicidality or a suicide attempt at 1 freestanding tertiary care pediatric medical hospital in the Midwest. Encounters were divided into 2 categories on the basis of the COVID-19 pandemic "Prelockdown" (March 1, 2018-March 12, 2020) and "postlockdown" (March 13, 2020-March 31, 2022). Patients were limited to 1 presentation pre- and postlockdown. We analyzed frequencies using means and SDs, categorical data using χ2 and Fisher's exact tests, and continuous data with t tests. RESULTS: A total of 1017 encounters were included, stratified into pre- and postlockdown groups for analysis (909 encounters, 889 unique patients). There was a significant difference in 365-day reutilization pre- and postlockdown when analyzing re-presentation to the emergency department (P = .025) and hospital readmission (P = .006). Admissions incrementally increased after the COVID-19 alpha variants in September 2020 and again after the delta variant in August 2021. CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic further intensified the already critical issue of pediatric mental health, demonstrating increased reutilization in the year after their initial presentation and an increase in admissions after the alpha variant.