Impact of COVID‐19 on Hospital Admissions for Children With Developmental Disadvantages: A Western Sydney Metropolitan Hospital Experience on Health Inequity

TL;DR

This study examines how the COVID-19 lockdown affected hospital admissions for children with developmental disabilities in Sydney, highlighting increased challenges and health inequities.

Contribution

The study provides new insights into health disparities faced by children with developmental disabilities during the pandemic lockdown.

Findings

Hospital presentations for children with developmental disadvantages decreased during lockdown.

Average length of stay increased by 1.5 folds for these children compared to minimal increase in general pediatric admissions.

Chronic conditions like seizures and asthma remained the main causes of admissions, with no indirect benefit from reduced infection transmission.

Abstract

To investigate the impact of Sydney's COVID‐19 lockdown on children with developmental disadvantages and reflect on current clinical practice.

Retrospective data was collected from a western Sydney metropolitan hospital's electronic database and patients. We reviewed all children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Cerebral Palsy (CP) or Intellectual Disability (ID) admitted 36 months prior to and after lockdown policy being implemented.

The prevalence of hospital presentation was reduced during the lockdown period. The average length of stay (LoS) increased by approximately 1.5 folds. Comparatively, the average LoS of the general paediatric population increased minimally. Seizures, asthma, and upper respiratory tract infections were the three commonest issues for hospital admissions in both periods. COVID‐19 infection accounted for 4% of admissions in the lockdown period. Around 20.8% of patients with disadvantages were admitted with more than two major issues. None of these patients had concurrent COVID‐19 infection.

Children with developmental disabilities experience greater disadvantages during lockdown. The likely reasons include inequity caused by increased barriers to healthcare service. The indirect benefit of reducing infection transmission during lockdown was not reflected in our patient group, contributing to the disease burden. Chronic diseases remain the most common causes of admissions in all periods, suggesting the essentiality of improving chronic disease management in future clinical practice.

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