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Report looks at product-related injuries treated in EDs during pandemic :

May 1, 2021

An analysis of preliminary data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) offers a snapshot of consumer product-related injuries treated at hospital emergency departments (EDs) during the first seven months of the pandemic compared to the same time in 2019.

The NEISS is a statistical sample of 96 hospitals; 82 hospitals reported data for this report. NEISS does not provide data on self-treatment or visits to doctors’ office and urgent care centers.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission used NEISS data to examine product-related injuries for age groups ranging from 0-4 years through 70+ years.

For adolescents, sports injuries treated in EDs had the largest declines. Injuries from track and field, lacrosse, hockey, soccer, baseball, softball, football and basketball each saw decreases of more than 60%, which the report attributes to the suspension of school and youth sports leagues in spring and summer 2020.

People also were less likely to visit EDs for less severe injuries, the report noted. During the pandemic, there was a 27% decline in patients treated in the ED and released, while severe injuries that required hospitalization decreased by only 1%.

“Although the reason for these decreases cannot be definitely known, it is likely that the nationwide surge in (COVID-19) cases, consumers’ abundance of caution and the accompanying stay-at-home restrictions throughout the U.S. led to fewer hospital visits,” according to the report.

Meanwhile, ED visits for injuries involving skateboards, scooters and hoverboards increased 183% for children ages 0-4 years, 143% for children ages 5-9 years and 55% for children ages 10-14 years. Injuries from batteries (all types) increased 93% for children ages 5-9 years.

Read more at https://bit.ly/3rPYx08.

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