Introduction: During the lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic in Denmark in March 2020, the trauma Accidents and Emergency (A and E) Department of Odense University Hospital, Denmark, experienced a marked decline in visits. We had the impression that the decline in visits for non-severe injuries was larger than that for severe injuries.
Methods: We analysed the incident rate ratio (IRR) between the first month of the lockdown with the IRR recorded in the month leading up to the lockdown. We then compared this IRR with the IRR for the equivalent periods of 2019. The outcomes were: diagnoses (or diagnosis groups), activity during injury (ADI), mechanisms of injury, age group and gender. Secondarily, certain specific diagnoses (or diagnosis groups) were analysed by ADI and mechanism of injury.
Results: We observed a significant reduction by 30.6% of all hand injuries in 2020. The non-severe injuries had a significant IRR reduction of 58.7% and the severe injuries a reduction of 15.3%, which was non-significant. The IRR in 2020 was significantly lower in 2020 for the age groups: 0-14, 15-17 and 25-49 years. The relative reduction in IRR was markedly larger for men (40.8%) than for women (22.3%), although this difference was not significant.
Conclusion: We observed a greater reduction in non-severe injuries than in severe injuries compared with 2019. Further studies are needed to fully examine the cause of this phenomenon. The reduction may be caused, in part, by a more restrictive attitude towards seeking medical help at a trauma A and E during the first COVID-19 lockdown.
Funding: none TRIAL REGISTRATION. not relevant.
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