Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34051730›Full record

ArticleBMC emergency medicine2021

Changes in the proportion and severity of patients with fever or common cold symptoms utilizing an after-hours house call medical service during the COVID-19 pandemic in Tokyo, Japan: a retrospective cohort study.

Ryota Inokuchi, Kojiro Morita, Masao Iwagami, Taeko Watanabe, Masatoshi Ishikawa, Nanako Tamiya

Open access · goldAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in BMC emergency medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
1.1field-weighted citation impact, top 20% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Ryota InokuchiDepartment of Health Services Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tenno-dai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8575, Japan. inokuchi.ryota.ge@u.tsukuba.ac.jp.
Kojiro MoritaDepartment of Health Services Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tenno-dai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8575, Japan.
Masao IwagamiDepartment of Health Services Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tenno-dai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8575, Japan.
Taeko WatanabeDepartment of Health Services Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tenno-dai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8575, Japan.
Masatoshi IshikawaDepartment of Health Services Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tenno-dai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8575, Japan.
Nanako TamiyaDepartment of Health Services Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tenno-dai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8575, Japan.
University of Tsukuba · JP

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundTrends in the characteristics and disease severity of patients using an after-hours house call (AHHC) medical service changed during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. However, there have been no reports on this issue since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to investigate patients' tendencies to utilize an AHHC medical service for fever or common cold symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

methodsThis retrospective cohort study compared the characteristics and disease severity of patients with fever or common cold symptoms utilizing an AHHC medical service offered by a single large company between the control period (December 1, 2018 to April 30, 2019) and the COVID-19 pandemic exposure period (December 1, 2019 to April 30, 2020). We also assessed the proportion of these patients in relation to all patients calling the service for any reason.

resultsDuring the control and COVID-19 pandemic exposure periods, a total of 6462 and 10,003 patients consulted the AHHC medical service, respectively. Of these, 5335 (82.6%) and 7423 (74.2%) patients had fever and common cold symptoms, respectively, during the control and COVID-19 pandemic exposure periods (P < 0.001). The corresponding median (interquartile range) ages were 8 (3-11) and 10 (4-33) years, respectively. The distribution of disease severity differed between the groups. The proportions of patients with mild, moderate, and severe illness were 71.1, 28.7, and 0.2% in the control period and 42.3, 56.7, and 0.9% in the COVID-19 pandemic exposure period, respectively (P < 0.001).

conclusionsDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, the proportion of patients with fever or common cold symptoms was lower than that in the control period, but disease severity was significantly higher.

Indexed as

Severity of Illness IndexAdultAfter-Hours CareCommon ColdContinuity of Patient CareCOVID-19FeverHouse CallsHumansJapanMaleMiddle AgedRetrospective StudiesOut-of-hours primary careOut-of-hours serviceQualitySevere acute respiratory syndromeSeverityTriage

Identifiers

PMID34051730
PMCPMC8164072
OpenAlexW3164662835

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.