Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39907044›Full record

ArticleJournal of paediatrics and child health2025

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

Lanxin Li, Habib Bhurawala, Anthony Liu

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of paediatrics and child health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Lanxin LiNepean Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Kingswond, New South Wales, Australia.
Habib BhurawalaNepean Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Kingswond, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5114-9380
Anthony LiuNepean Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Kingswond, New South Wales, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1374-2455

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

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

methodsRetrospective 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.

resultsThe 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.

conclusionsChildren 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.

Indexed as

Autism Spectrum DisorderCerebral PalsyCOVID-19Developmental DisabilitiesHealthcare DisparitiesHospitalizationIntellectual DisabilityAdolescentChildChild, PreschoolFemaleHumansInfantLength of StayMaleNew South Walesautism spectrum disorderCOVID‐19developmental disabilitieshealth inequities

Identifiers

PMID39907044
PMCPMC12053233

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.