The Impact of Earthquake-Induced Healthcare Disruption on an Established Developmental Hip Dysplasia Screening Program in an Earthquake Zone.
Highlights: What are the main findings? A major earthquake caused an acute collapse in DDH referrals followed by a statistically significant surge in late-presenting cases concentrated in a single spring quarter one year after the disaster. DDH incidence among late-presenting infants was markedly el...
| Publicado en: | Children Vol. 13; no. 8; pp. 1055 - 1064 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
| Formato: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
MDPI
Aug2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=196664014&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 196664014 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 22279067 LW6K jtl: Children issn: 22279067 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Aug2026 vid: 13 iid: 8 pid: 97109 pub: MDPI artinfo: ui: 196664014 196664014 196664014 10.3390/children13081055 196664014 ppf: 1055 ppct: 9 formats: tig: atl: The Impact of Earthquake-Induced Healthcare Disruption on an Established Developmental Hip Dysplasia Screening Program in an Earthquake Zone. aug: au: Aslantürk, Okan Çabuk, Sultan Nisa Ergen, Emre Özdeş, Hüseyin Utku Al, Fırat Sarıbas, Tahsin Kılıç, Murat Ertem, Hakan Karakaplan, Mustafa Demiröz Taşolar, Sevgi Ayvaz, Hüseyin Kıvrak, Aybars Bekmez, Şenol affil: Department of Orthopedic and Trauma Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Inonu University, Malatya 44280, Türkiye sug: subj: Natural Disasters Adverse Effects Health Screening Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip Diagnosis Human Turkiye Retrospective Design Record Review Descriptive Statistics Data Analysis Software Pearson's Correlation Coefficient Chi Square Test Fisher's Exact Test Time Series Friedman Test Post Hoc Analysis Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip Epidemiology ab: Highlights: What are the main findings? A major earthquake caused an acute collapse in DDH referrals followed by a statistically significant surge in late-presenting cases concentrated in a single spring quarter one year after the disaster. DDH incidence among late-presenting infants was markedly elevated during the earthquake year, and Pavlik harness failure requiring closed reduction emerged in post-earthquake cases where none had occurred before. What is the implication of the main finding? Major disasters produce bimodal disruption to DDH screening—an acute access failure followed by a delayed, temporally concentrated surge in missed cases—a pattern distinct from pandemic-related disruptions and not previously described in the earthquake literature. Post-disaster recovery plans should incorporate calendar-specific DDH screening recall strategies to identify unscreened infants through existing primary care systems. Background/Objectives: Pandemics and natural disasters may delay the diagnosis and treatment of developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH). In this study, we evaluated the effect of 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake-induced healthcare disruption on the DDH screening program. Methods: Medical records of infants referred for DDH screening between February 2022 and February 2025 were retrospectively reviewed. Three consecutive twelve-month intervals: the pre-earthquake year (February 2022 to February 2023), the earthquake year (February 2023 to February 2024), and the post-earthquake year (February 2024 to February 2025) were evaluated to detect early and late effects of the earthquake on the DDH screening. Results: A thousand infants in the pre-earthquake year, 404 in the earthquake year, and 824 in the post-earthquake year were evaluated. A 60% reduction in referrals was detected during the earthquake year. DDH incidence in late presentations during pre-earthquake, earthquake, and post-earthquake years was 18.6%, 45.8%, and 22.2%, respectively. Pairwise analysis revealed a statistically significant increase in the post-earthquake year compared with the pre-earthquake period (Yates-corrected chi-square = 4.119, p = 0.042). No significant difference was found between the pre-earthquake year and the earthquake year (Yates chi-square = 1.362, p = 0.243), nor between the post-earthquake years (Yates chi-square = 0.084, p = 0.772). Conclusions: The earthquake caused significant disruption in healthcare and DDH screening. Health authorities planning post-disaster service recovery should proactively augment DDH screening capacity for infants who missed screening during the acute phase. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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