ArticleArchives of physical medicine and rehabilitation2022
Reduced Requests for Medical Rehabilitation Because of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: A Difference-in-Differences Analysis.
Article in Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Return to work for people with chronic health conditions after medical or vocational rehabilitation during the COVID-19 pandemic: a scoping review.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Delivering physical rehabilitation services during the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran: Common challenges and potential solutions for future pandemics.Journal of preventive medicine and hygiene · 2025Article
- SARS-CoV-2-Related Adaptation Mechanisms of Rehabilitation Clinics Affecting Patient-Centered Care: Qualitative Study of Online Patient Reports.JMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologies · 2023Article
- Utilisation of rehabilitation due to mental disorders during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: a difference-in-differences analysis.BMC psychiatry · 2023Article
- Evolution of rehabilitation services in response to a global pandemic: reflection on opportunities and challenges ahead.Frontiers in rehabilitation sciences · 2023Article
- The Decline in Medical Rehabilitation for Children and Adolescents in Germany in the First Year of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic.Deutsches Arzteblatt international · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo examine the extent to which medical rehabilitation requests decreased because of the pandemic in Germany.
designData were retrieved from the German Pension Insurance, which is the main provider for rehabilitation of working-age people in Germany. Our data represented all medical rehabilitation requests in 2019 and 2020. These requests have to be approved to use a rehabilitation program. We used a difference-in-differences model to determine the reduction in rehabilitation requests attributable to the pandemic.
settingGeneral community.
participantsWe included 1,621,840 rehabilitation requests from working-age people across Germany in 2019 and 1,391,642 rehabilitation requests in 2020 (N=3,013,482).
interventionMedical rehabilitation in inpatient or outpatient facilities.
main outcome measuresNumber of medical rehabilitation requests.
resultsThe number of medical rehabilitation requests decreased by 14.5% because of the pandemic (incidence rate ratio, 0.855; 95% confidence interval, 0.851-0.859). The decline in requests was more pronounced among women and in Western Germany than among men and in Eastern Germany. The reduction in requests affected non-postacute rehabilitations more clearly than postacute rehabilitation services. After the pandemic declaration by the German Bundestag in March 2020, the reduction in requests was initially strongly associated with the regional incidence of infection. This association weakened in the following months.
conclusionsThe reduction in requests will have a significant effect on the number of completed rehabilitation services. For many people with chronic diseases, failure to provide medical rehabilitation increases the risk of disease progression.
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