The Impact of <scp>COVID</scp>‐19 Restrictions on Hospital Admissions of Common Head and Neck Infections
Bibliographic record
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Following the emergence of COVID-19, multiple preventative measures were implemented to limit the spread of the disease. This study aims to elucidate the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on hospital admissions of otolaryngology-related infections. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective chart review was conducted to capture all admissions for otolaryngology-related infections in the 2 years pre- and post-COVID-19 at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba. These infections included croup, tracheitis, neck abscess, peritonsillar abscess, otitis media, mastoiditis, sinus infection, orbital infection, pharyngotonsillitis, retro/parapharyngeal abscess, and acute epiglottitis. Demographic information and admission details were collected and analyzed to compare pre- and post-COVID-19 admissions. Further analysis was conducted to compare hospital admissions of patients from rural/remote regions. RESULTS: Between March 2018 and March 2022, 253 pediatric patients and 197 adults were admitted for otolaryngology-related infections. Total pediatric admissions decreased post-COVID-19 (154 pre-COVID-19, 99 post-COVID-19; p < 0.001) whereas adult admissions remained stable (107 pre-COVID-19, 90 post-COVID-19; p = 0.25). No significant difference in mean patient age, admission duration, surgical rates or in the proportion of admissions from patients from rural/remote regions was observed in the pediatric or adult cohort when comparing pre-COVID-19 data to post-COVID-19 data. Diagnosis-specific changes in admissions were observed in pediatric croup (40 pre-COVID-19, 15 post-COVID-19; p < 0.001) and in adult orbital infections (30 pre-COVID-19, six post-COVID-19; p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Following the implementation of COVID-19 restrictions, there was a decrease in admissions due to pediatric croup and adult orbital infections with an overall decrease in pediatric Otolaryngology-infection related admissions. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 3 Laryngoscope, 134:3542-3547, 2024.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.005 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".