Impact of the South Korean government’s medical school expansion announcement on pediatric emergency department visits

Table 3 Diagnostic categories of PED attendances, N (%)

Variables/Category		Pre COVID-19	COVID-19 pandemic			Post COVID-19	After residents’ resignation	P^*
Variables/Category		Feb 19– May 12, 2019	Feb 19– May 12, 2020	Feb 19– May 12, 2021	Feb 19– May 12, 2022	Feb 19– May 12, 2023	Feb 19– May 12, 2024	P^*
Diagnoses	Respiratory	993 (33.6%) ^a	152 (15.2%) ^b	217 (14.8%) ^b	181 (13.1%) ^b	1000 (31.6%) ^a	323 (20.1%) ^c	< 0.001
	Gastrointestinal	98 (3.3%) ^ab	50 (5.0%) ^c	60 (4.1%) ^ab	68 (4.9%) ^c	74 (2.3%) ^a	40 (2.5%) ^ab
	Hemato-oncologic	109 (3.7%) ^a	38 (3.8%) ^ab	53 (3.6%) ^a	79 (5.7%) ^b	89 (2.8%) ^a	61 (3.8%) ^ab
	Neurological	34 (1.2%) ^a	20 (2.0%) ^ab	23 (1.6%) ^a	23 (1.7%) ^a	36 (1.1%) ^a	45 (2.8%) ^b
	Trauma	806 (27.3%) ^a	439 (43.8%) ^c	562 (38.2%) ^b	434 (31.5%) ^a	593 (18.7%) ^d	303 (18.9%) ^d
	Infectious	551 (18.6%) ^a	134 (13.4%) ^b	287 (19.5%) ^a	306 (22.2%) ^a	976 (30.8%) ^c	591 (36.9%) ^c
	Uro-genital	53 (1.8%) ^ab	38 (3.8%) ^c	30 (2.0%) ^ab	35 (2.5%) ^ab	37 (1.2%) ^a	44 (2.7%) ^bc
	Cardiac	3 (0.1%) ^a	7 (0.7%) ^b	13 (0.9%) ^b	9 (0.7%) ^b	7 (0.2%) ^a	3 (0.2%) ^a
	Others	309 (10.5%) ^a	125 (12.5%) ^ab	225 (15.3%) ^b	243 (17.6%) ^b	352 (11.1%) ^a	193 (12.0%) ^ab

All values are frequencies (%) except where otherwise indicated.
Chi-square test with Bonferroni-adjusted post-hoc analysis Different superscript letters (a, b, c, d) within the same row indicate significant differences between groups (P < 0.05 after Bonferroni correction) P-values are from chi-square test
PED, Pediatric Emergency Department

ISSN: 1471-227X