A Comparative Analysis of the Incidence of Pediatric Orbital Fractures Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Japanese Population

TL;DR

This study found no significant change in the incidence of pediatric orbital fractures in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to before.

Contribution

The study provides new insights into how pandemic restrictions affected children's physical activity and injury rates in Japan.

Findings

The most common cause of injury was sports in both pre-pandemic and pandemic periods.

There was no statistically significant difference in the daily rate of patient consults during the pandemic.

Children's physical activities did not significantly decline despite pandemic restrictions.

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of this study is to compare data on the incidence of pediatric orbital fractures before the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and during the period of the pandemic in the Japanese population.

Methods: This retrospective, single-center, observational study including 225 patients (226 sides) aged ≤ 18 years old diagnosed with orbital fracture was conducted in our institution from March 2017 to April 2023. The study compared the incidence of pediatric orbital fractures in the pre-pandemic period from March 2017 to March 2020 and during the pandemic from April 2020 to April 2023.

Results: The most common cause of injury was sports in both groups (137 sides, 60.6%), and the ratio of causes of injury (P = 0.610) or between outdoor and indoor sports (P = 1.000) was not statistically different between the groups. Although the daily rate of patient consults was lowest during the country’s state of emergency with priority preventative measures, the difference between pre-pandemic and pandemic was not statistically significant (P = 0.911).

Conclusion: Despite the restrictions mandated by the Japanese government during the COVID-19 pandemic, the physical activities of children did not significantly decline. Hence, the risk of pediatric orbital fractures remained the same.

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