A comparison of child abuse and neglect encounters before and after school closings due to SARS-Cov-2.

Background: Risk factors for child abuse and neglect and commonly used reporting mechanisms were highly affected by SARS-Cov-2 pandemic; yet, little is known about the effects of SARS-Cov-2 on rates of child abuse and neglect.

Objective: To compare overall rates, demographics, types of abuse and acuity of child abuse and neglect encounters seen at one university health system for the 6 months before and after school closings due to the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic.

Participants And Setting: Data was extracted from a database of billed ICD10 codes for child abuse and neglect including sexual abuse codes.