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Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adult mental health-related admissions at a large university health system in North Carolina - one year into the pandemic.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Der, T; Helmke, N; Stout, JE; Turner, NA
Published in: PLoS One
2023

OBJECTIVE: Pandemic-associated stress may have exacerbated preexisting mental health and substance use disorders (MH/SUD) and caused new MH/SUD diagnoses which would be expected to lead to an increase in visits to emergency departments and hospital admissions for these conditions. This study assessed whether the proportion of hospital and emergency department encounters for MH/SUD diagnoses increased during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. METHODS: We conducted a longitudinal (interrupted time series) analysis of 994,724 eligible encounters identified by electronic query between January 1, 2016 and March 31, 2021. Of these, 55,574 encounters involved MH/SUD diagnosis. The pre-pandemic period was defined as January 1, 2016 to March 31, 2020, and the pandemic period was defined as April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021. All statistical analyses were performed with R. RESULTS: No significant trend in MH/SUD encounters at baseline (rate ratio 1.00, 95% CI 0.99-1.01, p = 0.75) was observed. However, the onset of the pandemic was temporally associated with a significant level increase in the proportion of MH/SUD encounters relative to overall encounters (rate ratio 1.14, 95% CI 1.06-1.21, p<0.001) with no change in the overall trend (rate ratio 0.99, 95% CI 0.90-1.10, p = 0.89). CONCLUSIONS: The significant pandemic-associated increase in the proportion of MH/SUD encounters relative to overall encounters was driven largely by sustained numbers of MH/ SUD encounters despite a decrease in total encounters. Increased support for mental health care is needed for these vulnerable patients during pandemics.

Duke Scholars

Published In

PLoS One

DOI

EISSN

1932-6203

Publication Date

2023

Volume

18

Issue

12

Start / End Page

e0293831

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Universities
  • United States
  • Substance-Related Disorders
  • Pandemics
  • North Carolina
  • Mental Health
  • Humans
  • General Science & Technology
  • Emergency Service, Hospital
  • COVID-19
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Der, T., Helmke, N., Stout, J. E., & Turner, N. A. (2023). Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adult mental health-related admissions at a large university health system in North Carolina - one year into the pandemic. PLoS One, 18(12), e0293831. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0293831
Der, Tatyana, Nicole Helmke, Jason E. Stout, and Nicholas A. Turner. “Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adult mental health-related admissions at a large university health system in North Carolina - one year into the pandemic.PLoS One 18, no. 12 (2023): e0293831. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0293831.
Der, Tatyana, et al. “Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adult mental health-related admissions at a large university health system in North Carolina - one year into the pandemic.PLoS One, vol. 18, no. 12, 2023, p. e0293831. Pubmed, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0293831.

Published In

PLoS One

DOI

EISSN

1932-6203

Publication Date

2023

Volume

18

Issue

12

Start / End Page

e0293831

Location

United States

Related Subject Headings

  • Universities
  • United States
  • Substance-Related Disorders
  • Pandemics
  • North Carolina
  • Mental Health
  • Humans
  • General Science & Technology
  • Emergency Service, Hospital
  • COVID-19