The influence of coronavirus disease 2019 on emergency department visits in Nanjing, China: A multicentre cross-sectional study.

INTRODUCTION: Influenza has been linked to the crowding in emergency departments (ED) across the world. The impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on China EDs has been quite different from those during past influenza outbreaks. Our objective was to determine if COVID-19 changed ED visit disease severity during the pandemic. METHODS: This was a retrospective cross sectional study conducted in Nanjing, China. We captured ED visit data from 28 hospitals. We then compared visit numbers from October 2019 to February 2020 for a month-to-month analysis and every February from 2017 to 2020 for a year-to-year analysis. Inter-group chi-square test and time series trend tests were performed to compare visit numbers. The primary outcome was the proportion of severe disease visits in the EDs. RESULTS: Through February 29 th 2020, there were 93 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients in Nanjing, of which 40 cases (43.01%) were first seen in the ED. The total number of ED visits in Nanjing in February 2020, were dramatically decreased (n = 99,949) in compared to January 2020 (n = 313,125) and February 2019 (n = 262,503). Except for poisoning, the severe diseases in EDs all decreased in absolute number, but increased in proportion both in year-to-year and month-to-month analyses. This increase in proportional ED disease severity was greater in higher-level referral hospitals when compared year by year. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 outbreak has been associated with decreases in ED visits in Nanjing, China, but increases in the proportion of severe ED visits.

[Epidemiology characteristics of crawfish related rhabdomyolysis in Nanjing, 2016: a multicenter retrospective investigation].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the epidemiology characteristics of crawfish related rhabdomyolysis (RM) in Nanjing, 2016. METHODS: Outpatient and inpatient electronic medical system of 21 hospitals in Nanjing during 2016 were retrospectively searched, and all the patients diagnosed with RM were selected. The patients with none crayfish-related RM was excluded. The epidemiology characteristics were depicted. The geographic information system (GIS) was used to collect, manage and analyze the spatial data, to visualize it, to analyze the spatial distribution features of the disease, and to explore the cause of disease prediction. GeoDa 1.8 software was used to analyze the global and local spatial auto-correlation. RESULTS: A total of 1 183 patients with crawfish related RM were initially screened, excluding 59 patients with RM caused by trauma, severe exercise, heat stroke, myositis, poisoning, drugs, and genetic diseases, and 1 124 patients were enrolled. The proportion of men was 36.48% (410/1 124) with an incidence of 12.54/100 thousands; while of women was 63.52% (714/1 124) with an incidence of 21.86/100 thousands. The median age at onset was 34 (28, 43) years. From July to August, the incidence of crawfish related RM was the highest, accounting for 96.53% of the total number of cases. The top four incidence areas were Pukou (41.54/100 thousands), Jianye (25.94/100 thousands), Qixia (25.73/100 thousands), Gulou (25.04/100 thousands), all of which were adjacent to the Yangtze River. Global spatial autocorrelation analysis showed: Moran I = 0.427, Z = 2.646, P = 0.003, suggesting that the crawfish related RM had positive spatial autocorrelation. The results showed that the spatial structure of crawfish related RM existed in Nanjing in 2016. Local spatial autocorrelation analysis showed that the "high-high" concentration areas were Pukou, Jianye and Liuhe. The incidences of above three areas which were the Nanjing section of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River flowed through the region and surrounding areas were higher than the overall incidence of Nanjing. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of crawfish related RM in Nanjing during 2016 had an obvious region-concentrated character and global spatial autocorrelation with the high prevalent regions mainly concentrated in the urban areas adjacent to the Yangtze River.