• Ting Gee Annie Chiu, William C Y Leung, Qiqi Zhang, LauEric H YEHYSchool of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong., Ryan Wui-Hang Ho, Hoi-Shan Sophelia Chan, and Richard Shek-Kwan Chang.
• Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
• J Formos Med Assoc. 2021 Aug 1; 120 (8): 1647-1651.

AbstractA territory-wide retrospective observational study was conducted in Hong Kong between January 23 to April 22, 2020 to demonstrate changes in pediatric seizure-related accident and emergency department (A&E) visits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parallel periods from 2015 to 2019 were used as control. All-cause A&E attendances in all paediatric age groups decreased significantly during the study period. Seizure-related attendances decreased across all pediatric age-groups in 2020 (RR 0.379, 95% CI 0.245-0.588), with a disproportionately large decrease in the 0-6 years age group (RR 0.303, 95% CI 0.174-0.526) compared with the 7-18 years age group (RR 0.534, 95% CI 0.393-0.719). Decrease in RTI-related A&E attendances was also more drastic in the 0-6 age group. The two time trends are congruent in the 0-6 years but not the 7-18 years age group. Such a trend is suggestive of the usefulness of infection control measures in seizure prevention, especially amongst young children.Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier B.V.

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