A comparative analysis of pediatric mental health-related emergency department utilization in Montréal, Canada, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Table 2 Semi-parametric GAM for MHR ED utilization, April 1, 2016 to November 2021

	Parametric terms
	Estimate	SE	p-value
Intercept	−3.312	0.039	< 0.001
Time period
Prepandemic (ref)
Pandemic	0.126	0.067	0.062
Sex
Male (ref)
Female	0.353	0.028	< 0.001
SES
Most deprived	−0.267	0.038	< 0.001
Average (ref)
Most privileged	−0.174	0.040	< 0.001
Sex (female): time period (pandemic)	0.348	0.048	< 0.001
SES (most deprived): time period (pandemic)	0.012	0.064	0.850
SES (most privileged): time period (pandemic)	0.089	0.067	0.184
	Smooth terms
	EDF		p-value
Seasonality	7.345		< 0.001
Age	7.137		< 0.001
Seasonality: time period (pandemic)	3.038		0.004
Age: time period (pandemic)	4.106		< 0.001

The colon symbol is employed to represent the interaction between two terms. age and seasonality are measured in years and months, respectively
ED, emergency department; EDF, effective degrees of freedom (of the functional parameters); GAM, generalized additive model; MHR, mental health-related; SE, standard error (for the parameter estimate); SES, socio-economic status

ISSN: 1744-859X