ArticleBMC health services research2022
Associations of the COVID-19 pandemic with older individuals' healthcare utilization and self-reported health status: a longitudinal analysis from Singapore.
Article in BMC health services research, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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.
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.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- The effect of age-specific stay-at-home recommendation on healthcare utilization: Evidence from Finland's COVID-19 policy.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2026Article
- Sociodemographic factors that influence COVID-19 healthcare utilization and costs in Alberta, Canada: a population-based study using the Alberta COVID-19 analytics and research database.Frontiers in health services · 2026Article
- Healthcare utilization among Japanese older adults during later stage of prolonged pandemic.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Impact of a pandemic shock on unmet medical needs of middle-aged and older adults in 10 countries.BMJ health & care informatics · 2024Article
- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the rehabilitation therapy of children and adolescents with cerebral palsy: a nationwide, health insurance data-based study.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- The effect of COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare seeking in an urban informal settlement in Nairobi and a rural setting in western Kenya.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Self-reported delays in care-seeking in West Africa during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- Article
- Article
- Cardiovascular Health Care Implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.Heart failure clinics · 2023Review
- Undiagnosed cardiovascular risk factors including elevated lipoprotein(a) in patients with ischaemic heart disease.Frontiers in epidemiology · 2023Article
- Delay or postponement of medical care among older adults in the Netherlands at earlier and later stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2022Article
- Stronger association of perceived health with socio-economic inequality during COVID-19 pandemic than pre-pandemic era.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Cardiovascular Health Care Implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.Cardiology clinics · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the capacity of healthcare systems around the world and can potentially compromise healthcare utilization and health outcomes among non-COVID-19 patients.
objectivesTo examine the associations of the COVID-19 pandemic with healthcare utilization, out-of-pocket medical costs, and perceived health among middle-aged and older individuals in Singapore.
methodUtilizing data collected from a monthly panel survey, a difference-in-differences approach was used to characterize monthly changes of healthcare use and spending and estimate the probability of being diagnosed with a chronic condition and self-reported health status before and during the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. SUBJECTS: Data were analyzed from 7569 nationally representative individuals from 2019 January and 2020 December. MEASURES: Healthcare utilization and healthcare spending by medical service categories as well as self-reported health status.
resultsBetween January and April 2020 (the first peak period of COVID-19 in Singapore), doctor visits decreased by 30%, and out-of-pocket medical spending decreased by 23%, mostly driven by reductions in inpatient and outpatient care. As a result, the probability of any diagnosis of chronic conditions decreased by 19% in April 2020. The decreased healthcare utilization and spending recovered after lifting the national lockdown in June, 2020 and remained similar to the pre-pandemic level through the rest of 2020.
conclusionsMiddle-aged and older Singaporeans' healthcare utilization and the diagnosis of chronic conditions substantially decreased during the first peak period of the COVID-19 outbreak. Further studies to track the longer-term health effect of the pandemic among non-COVID-19 patients are warranted.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.