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Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are potentially traumatic exposures experienced during childhood, for example, neglect. There is growing evidence that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and related socioeconomic conditions contributed to an increased risk of ACEs. As public health programs/services are re-evaluated and restored following the state of emergency, it is important to plan using an ACEs-informed lens. The aim of this study was to identify and prioritize initiatives or activities that Public Health Ontario (PHO) could undertake to support Ontario public health units' work towards ACEs-informed pandemic recovery plans. Methods: The Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative method was adapted to conduct a priority-setting exercise (May–October 2022). Two online surveys were administered with members of the Healthy Growth and Development (HGD) Evidence Network, comprised of public health unit staff working in child and family health/HGD from Ontario's 34 public health units. In the first survey, participants were asked to propose activities or initiatives that PHO could undertake to support Ontario public health units' work towards ACEs-informed planning. In the second survey, participants were asked to score the final list of options against pre-determined prioritization criteria (for example, relevance). Responses were numerically coded and used to calculate prioritization scores, which were used to rank the options. Results: In all, 76% of public health units (n = 26) responded to the first survey to identify options. The 168 proposed ideas were consolidated into a final list of 13 options, which fall under PHO's scientific and technical support mandate areas (data and surveillance, evidence synthesis, collaboration and networking, knowledge exchange and research). A total of 79% of public health units (n = 27) responded to the follow-up survey to prioritize options. Prioritization scores ranged from 76.4% to 88.6%. The top-ranked option was the establishment of a new provincial ACEs community of practice. Conclusions: Over three quarters of public health units contributed to identifying and ranking 13 options for PHO to support public health units in considering and addressing ACEs through pandemic recovery planning. In consultation with the ACEs and Resilience Community of Practice, recently formed on the basis of this exercise, PHO will continue to use the ranked list of options to inform work-planning activities/priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The public health measures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic may have indirectly impacted other health outcomes, such as falls among older adults. The purpose of this study was to examine trends in fall-related hospitalizations and emergency department visits among older adults before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Canada. Methods: We obtained fall-related hospitalizations (N = 301,945) and emergency department visit (N = 1,150,829) data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information databases from 2015 to 2022 for adults ages 65 and older in Ontario. Fall-related injuries were obtained using International Classification of Diseases, 10th edition, Canada codes. An interrupted time series analysis was used to model the change in weekly fall-related hospitalizations and emergency department visits before (January 6, 2015-March 16, 2020) and during (March 17, 2020-December 26, 2022) the pandemic. Results: After adjusting for seasonality and population changes, an 8% decrease in fall-related hospitalizations [Relative Rate (RR) = 0.92, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 0.85, 1.00] and a 23% decrease in fall-related emergency department visits (RR = 0.77, 95%CI: 0.59, 1.00) were observed immediately following the onset of the pandemic, followed by increasing trends during the pandemic for both outcomes. Conclusions: Following an abrupt decrease in hospitalizations and emergency department visits immediately following the onset of the pandemic, fall-related hospitalizations and emergency department visits have been increasing steadily and are approaching pre-pandemic levels. Further research exploring the factors contributing to these trends may inform future policies for public health emergencies that balance limiting the spread of disease among this population while supporting the physical, psychological, and social needs of this vulnerable group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]