Admissions for eating disorders and other mental health diagnoses during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The objective is to examine how hospital admissions for mental health and eating disorders changed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and with the return to fully in-person school with increased vaccine availability. Data from a tertiary care children's hospital were examined for admissions to the hospital from March 2018 through March 2022, including children 6–20 years old admitted with ICD-10 codes for mental health and eating disorders. Interrupted time series (ITS) analyses were used to examine for changes at specific time points. In the first year of the pandemic, the ITS analysis showed a significant increase in admissions per month for eating disorders with a slope of 1.2 (95 % CI: 0.2, 2.2) and for other mental health diagnoses, a slope of 1.9 (95 % CI: 1.1, 2.7). In a longer-term ITS analysis, return to fully in-person school was associated with no significant changes. The COVID-19 pandemic had an initial impact on admissions for eating disorders and other mental health that attenuated over time.