6249 Characteristics and presentations of adolescents attending a paediatric emergency department

Objectives Young people aged 10–19 years old represent 12% of total UK population.1 The journey of adolescents through physiological, psychological and social paradigms has recently become more complex following the pandemic. Healthcare professionals must understand their needs to ensure we provide appropriate support. Determining what brings adolescents to seek medical help in Emergency Department can highlight areas and services, which need to be developed. We aim to determine the characteristics of adolescents presenting to emergency department over a period of 1 year. Methods A retrospective analysis of attendances of all young people aged 13–18 years attending a moderate sized paediatric emergency department (PED) from January to December 2022 was conducted using data collected from the patient booking in system and clinical coding. Results A total of 10,359 adolescent presentations accounted for 11.2% of all attendances (adult and paediatric). 32% of attendances to paediatric emergency department (attendances from birth-18 years) were related to young people. Presentations were divided into 4 broad categories:- injuries (67%), medical and/or surgical (21%)mental and social (7%), others (5%). A quarter of pre-alerts and resuscitation attendance for young people were related to trauma. Chest pain, abdominal pain and collapse were the main reasons for medical and surgical presentations majority of whom were not admitted. Two-thirds of mental health-related presentations were due to overdose. This distribution is similar compared to presentations of adolescents to same hospital in 20142(64% injuries, 18.5% medical and surgical and 7.5% mental and social, others 10%). The major difference relates to drugs and alcohol presentations (decrease from 3.23 to 1%) but increase in mental health presentations (5 to 6.5%). 52 attendances were pregnancy related and 59 were following a reported assault, including sexual assault. Frequent attenders accounted for 46 attendances. 5.5% were admitted or transferred. Out of the 5.3% who did not wait, 17.4% related to social and mental health, injury following an assault or pregnancy-related, posing potential safeguarding risks. Conclusion Presentations of adolescents to PED are different to younger children. Approximately two thirds of their presentations were injury related. Majority of adolescents did not need admission. Adolescents' mental and social health problems have increased which use a sizeable proportion of resources. There was a sizable number presentations with potential safeguarding risks who are leaving PED without being clinically assessed. These data about presentations of adolescents to PED should be used for development of emergency care and preventative pathways specifically aimed at adolescents. References Patwardhan S, Norris F, Edwards ED. Persons aged 10 to 19 living in households in the UK, 2019 – office for national statistics. Characteristics of presentations in adolescents presenting to emergency department; Welsh Paediatric Journal Spring 2014. Patwardhan S, Norris F, Edwards ED:- Adolescent drug and alcohol related presentations to a Welsh emergency department; Welsh Paediatric Journal 2015;42:22–24.