The proportion of children's mental health-related visits to hospital emergency departments rose substantially toward the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and remained elevated into October, according to a CDC analysis released Nov. 12.
The analysis found the overall number of children's mental health-related ED visits decreased during mid-March to early May, concurrent with implementation of COVID-19 mitigation measures in the U.S. However, at the same time, the proportion of mental health-related visits for children age 5 to 11 and adolescents age 12 to 17 climbed 24 percent and 31 percent, respectively, beginning in mid-March into October, compared to the same period of 2019.
"The increased proportion of children’s mental health-related ED visits during March-October 2020 might be artefactually inflated as a consequence of the substantial decrease in overall ED visits during the same period and variation in the number of EDs reporting to NSSP," the CDC said. "However, these findings provide initial insight into children's mental health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and highlight the importance of continued monitoring of children's mental health throughout the pandemic, ensuring access to care during public health crises, and improving healthy coping strategies and resiliency among children and families."
The CDC examined ED visit data from the agency's National Syndromic Surveillance Program from Jan. 1 through Oct. 17 this year, then compared it to the same period a year prior. The data includes hospitals in 47 states (except Hawaii, South Dakota and Wyoming), representing about 73 percent of ED visits in the country.
More information about the analysis is available here.