Impact of societal restrictions and lockdown on trauma admissions during theCOVID-19 pandemic: a single-centre cross-sectional observational study

Background Societal restrictions and lockdown during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic have had a significant impact on the volume and nature of trauma admissions. We assessed the impact of COVID-19 related societal restrictions and lockdown on trauma admissions to single level 1 trauma centre in Westmead, Australia. We hypothesized that the number of trauma admissions would decrease and number of admissions due to self-harm and assault (specifically domestic violence) would increase. Methods Data was collected from the prospectively maintained Westmead Hospital Trauma Registry. The primary outcome compared was the average number of trauma admissions during March and April during years 2016 to 2020. Analysis of variance was used to analyse means. Pairwise differences among group means were evaluated with Tukey's honestly significant difference test. Secondary outcomes compared were in-hospital interventions and patient outcomes. Results There was a 23-34% decrease (P= 0.018) in the mean monthly average trauma admissions during March/April 2020 compared with previous years 2016-2019. In addition, there was a 40-52% decrease (P= 0.025) and 13-29% decrease (P= 0.020) in admissions due to road traffic collisions and falls respectively. Conclusion There was a significant decrease in the overall number of trauma-related admissions during the COVID-19-related period of societal restrictions and lockdown. This was due to a decrease in minor traumas, falls and road traffic collisions. There was no difference in the number of admissions secondary to major traumas, self-harm or assault.