14 - Trends in Emergency Department Visits for Substance Use in Youth from 2018 to 2022
Saturday, April 29, 2023
3:30 PM – 6:00 PM ET
Poster Number: 14 Publication Number: 14.2
Madeline H. Renny, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States; Jennifer Barvincak, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Berea, OH, United States; Alexis Zebrowski, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States; Yasmin Hurd, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States; Roland C. Merchant, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States
Assistant Professor Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York, New York, United States
Background: Emergency departments (EDs) are a promising location for initiating substance use interventions for youth. Knowing the frequency of substance use-related ED visits can help prioritize and devise interventions for youth. Objective: To investigate trends in substance use-related ED visits for patients aged 12-21 years from 2018 to 2022. Design/Methods: We reviewed electronic health records from six EDs in an urban health care system for substance use-related visits by patients aged 12-21 years from January 2018 to December 2022. Visits were identified by ICD-10 codes. Visit frequency was calculated by age group (12-14, 15-17, and 18-21 years) and substance type (e.g., alcohol, cannabis, psychoactive substances, opioids, sedatives). Logistic regression was used to assess trends over time. Results: Of the 147,502 ED visits by patients aged 12-21 years from 2018 to 2022, 3,294 (2.2%) visits were substance use-related, mostly by 18-21-year-olds (81.3%). Of the 3,052 patients who made these 3,294 substance use-related visits, 5% (n=143) visited the ED more than once for substance use over the study period. Substance use-related visits increased over time (Figure 1). By age group, the magnitude of this increase from 2018 to 2022 was: 12-14-year-olds (OR 1.33, 95% CI: 1.15-1.54), 15-17-year-olds (OR 1.18, 95% CI: 1.11-1.25), and 18-21-year-olds (OR 1.03, 95% CI: 1.01-1.06). Although visits for alcohol were the most frequent type of substance use-related visit overall, ED visits for cannabis increased during the study period for all age groups (test of trend; p< 0.01); visits for sedatives and opioids were less frequent (Figure 2). The most frequent substance use-related ED visits by age group were for cannabis by 12-14-year-olds, (n=55; 57.3%), and for alcohol by 15-17-year-olds (n=254; 48.8%) and 18-21-year-olds (n=1702; 63.6%).
Conclusion(s): ED visits for substance use in youth increased from 2018 to 2022.Alcohol and cannabis were the most common substances involved, with an increase in visits for cannabis over time.These findings can inform targeted ED-based interventions for substance use in youth.
