Hospital admissions for maltreatment among children younger than 2 years during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada
Initial public health measures and restricted health care access during the pandemic were associated with decreased rates of hospital admission for child maltreatment. We found no sustained reduction in overall hospital admission rates throughout the remaining pandemic period, but admissions to ICU increased. Our findings suggest that public health measures during the pandemic resulted in decreased detection of child maltreatment and possibly increased severity of cases involving hospital admission, suggesting a need for greater attention to identification and treatment of child maltreatment in future pandemic settings.
Authors
- Matthew Carwana (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8743-0342)
- Astrid Guttmann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8177-2253)
- C Quach
- Samina Ali (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0595-364X)
- Melissa Braschel
- Patricia Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1791-9411)
- Kate Zinszer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1388-1145)
- Paige H. Dean
- Patrícia S. Fontela (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0134-7845)
- Kris Kang
- Gita Wahi
- Mamadou Diop
- Ofélie Trudeau-Ferrin
- Nita Jain
- Soren Gantt
- Britt Udall
- Nadia Roumeliotis
- Baudouin Forgeot-d’Arc
- Quynh Doan
- Sylvana M. Côté
- Mike Benigeri
- Peter Gill
Institutions
- Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte-Justine (CA)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Canadian Medical Association Journal
- Published
- 2026-02-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.251317
- Primary Topic
- Child Abuse and Trauma
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Canadian Bee Research Fund
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research