• Naveen Poonai, Stephen B Freedman, Amanda S Newton, Scott Sawyer, Nathalie Gaucher, Samina Ali, Bruce Wright, Michael R Miller, Ahmed Mater, Eleanor Fitzpatrick, Mona Jabbour, Roger Zemek, Mohamed Eltorki, Quynh Doan, and Pediatric Emergency Research Canada (PERC) Network.
• Departments of Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, and Epidemiology and Biostatistics (Poonai, Miller), Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University; Children's Health Research Institute (Poonai, Miller), London Health Sciences Centre, London, Ont.; Divisions of Pediatric Emergency Medicine and Gastroenterology (Freedman), Departments of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine, Alberta Children's Hospital, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alta.; Department of Pediatrics (Newton), Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, College of Health Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alta.; Department of Pediatrics (Sawyer), University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Man.; Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine (Gaucher), Université de Montréal, Montréal, Que.; Department of Pediatrics, and Women and Children's Health Research Institute (Ali, Wright), Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alta.; Children's Emergency Services (Mater), Department of Pediatrics, Jim Pattison Children's Hospital, Saskatoon, Sask.; IWK Health and Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine (Fitzpatrick), Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS; Department of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine (Jabbour, Zemek), University of Ottawa; Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute (Jabbour, Zemek), Ottawa, Ont.; Department of Pediatrics (Eltorki), Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont.; Department of Pediatrics (Doan), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC naveen.poonai@lhsc.on.ca.
• CMAJ. 2023 Sep 18; 195 (36): E1221E1230E1221-E1230.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic had profound effects on the mental wellbeing of adolescents. We sought to evaluate pandemic-related changes in health care use for suicidal ideation, self-poisoning and self-harm.MethodsWe obtained data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information on emergency department visits and hospital admissions from April 2015 to March 2022 among adolescents aged 10-18 years in Canada. We calculated the quarterly percentage of emergency department visits and hospital admissions for a composite outcome comprising suicidal ideation, self-poisoning and self-harm relative to all-cause emergency department visits and hospital admissions. We used interrupted time-series methods to compare changes in levels and trends of these outcomes between the prepandemic (Apr. 1, 2015-Mar. 1, 2020) and pandemic (Apr. 1, 2020-Mar. 31, 2022) periods.ResultsThe average quarterly percentage of emergency department visits for suicidal ideation, self-poisoning and self-harm relative to all-cause emergency department visits was 2.30% during the prepandemic period and 3.52% during the pandemic period. The level (0.08%, 95% confidence interval [CI] -0.79% to 0.95%) or trend (0.07% per quarter, 95% CI -0.14% to 0.28%) of this percentage did not change significantly between periods. The average quarterly percentage of hospital admissions for the composite outcome relative to all-cause admissions was 7.18% during the prepandemic period and 8.96% during the pandemic period. This percentage showed no significant change in level (-0.70%, 95% CI -1.90% to 0.50%), but did show a significantly increasing trend (0.36% per quarter; 95% 0.07% to 0.65%) during the pandemic versus prepandemic periods, specifically among females aged 10-14 years (0.76% per quarter, 95% CI 0.22% to 1.30%) and females aged 15-18 years (0.56% per quarter, 95% CI 0.31% to 0.81%).InterpretationThe quarterly change in the percentage of hospital admissions for suicidal ideation, self-poisoning and self-harm increased among adolescent females in Canada during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic. This underscores the need to promote public health policies that mitigate the impact of the pandemic on adolescent mental health.© 2023 CMA Impact Inc. or its licensors.

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