ArticleCMAJ open
Changes in family medicine visits across sociodemographic groups after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario: a retrospective cohort study.
Article in CMAJ open. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Guidelines and recommendations about virtual mental health services from high-income countries: a rapid review.BMJ open · 2024Review
- A comparison between different patient groups for diabetes management during phases of the COVID-19 pandemic: a retrospective cohort study in Ontario, Canada.BMC primary care · 2024Article
- Developing standards for virtual delivery of mental health services in Canadian primary care: A qualitative study and modified Delphi process.PLOS mental health · 2024Article
- Which decisions affect cohort distribution in COVID-19 data analytics?AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings. AMIA Symposium · 2024Article
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- Sociodemographic Differences in Physician-Based Mental Health and Virtual Care Utilization and Uptake of Virtual Care Among Children and Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Ontario, Canada: A Population-Based Study.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2023Article
- Examining the impact of COVID-19 on health care utilization among persons with chronic spinal cord injury/dysfunction: a population study.Spinal cord · 2023Article
- Family physicians' questions about the COVID-19 pandemic: a content analysis of 2,272 helpline calls.BMC primary care · 2023Article
- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the rate of primary care visits for substance use among patients in Ontario, Canada.PloS one · 2023Article
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- Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Health Care Access: A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of women's health (2002) · 2022Article
- The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on primary care physicians in Israel, with comparison to an international cohort: a cross-sectional study.Israel journal of health policy research · 2022Article
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- Effects of COVID-19 pandemic on anxiety and depression in primary care: A retrospective cohort study.Journal of affective disorders · 2022Article
- Coronavirus Disease 2019 and the Impact on Substance Use Disorder Treatments.The Psychiatric clinics of North America · 2022Review
- The quick pivot: Capturing real world modifications for the re-implementation of an early psychosis program transitioning to virtual delivery.Frontiers in health services · 2022Article
- Article
- Changes in the top 25 reasons for primary care visits during the COVID-19 pandemic in a high-COVID region of Canada.PloS one · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIt has been suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened socioeconomic disparities in access to primary care. Given these concerns, we investigated whether the pandemic affected visits to family physicians differently across sociodemographic groups.
methodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study using electronic medical records from family physician practices within the University of Toronto Practice-Based Research Network. We evaluated primary care visits for a fixed cohort of patients who were active within the database as of Jan. 1, 2019, to estimate the number of patients who visited their family physician (visitor rate) and the number of distinct visits (visit volume) between Jan. 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020. We compared trends in visitor rate and visit volume during the pandemic (Mar. 14 to June 30, 2020) with the same period in the previous year (Mar. 14 to June 30, 2019) across sociodemographic factors, including age, sex, neighbourhood income, material deprivation and ethnic concentration.
resultsWe included 365 family physicians and 372 272 patients. Compared with the previous year, visitor rates during the pandemic period dropped by 34.5%, from 357 visitors per 1000 people to 292 visitors per 1000 people. Declines in visit volume during the pandemic were less pronounced (21.8% fewer visits), as the mean number of visits per patient increased during the pandemic (from 1.64 to 1.96). The declines in visitor rate and visit volume varied based on patient age and sex, but not socioeconomic status.
interpretationAlthough the number of visits to family physicians dropped substantially during the first few weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, patients from communities with low socioeconomic status did not appear to be disproportionately affected. In this primary care setting, the pandemic appears not to have worsened socioeconomic disparities in access to care.
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