Childhood accidents treated in a Brazilian prehospital service during the COVID-19 pandemic

Objective To characterize accidents involving children and adolescents attended by the Mobile Emergency Care Service (SAMU) - Campo Grande before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods This was a descriptive, exploratory, cross-sectional and quantitative study carried out at the SAMU in the municipality of Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul. The non-intentional sample consisted of 1,544 accidents involving children and adolescents between March and December 2019 (n=823) and the same period in 2020 (n=721). Data was collected from the service’s physical and electronic medical records and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results Accidents involving children and adolescents accounted for 29.1% of care provided in 2029 and 31.6% in 2020. In both periods, there was a predominance of accidents among adolescents (p<0.001) and among male children. Traffic accidents, falls and trauma were the most frequently recorded types of accident in both years (p=0.003). Conclusion The analysis of data from 2019 and 2020 highlights a significant increase in accidents involving children and adolescents in 2020, especially during the months of social isolation. There have been changes in the profile of accidents, with an increase in cases at home, at night, airway obstruction, poisoning and burns.