ArticlePloS one2022
Pandemic trends in health care use: From the hospital bed to self-care with COVID-19.
Article in PloS one, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Systematic review of post-COVID condition in Nordic population-based registry studies.Nature communications · 2025Pooled it
- A systematic literature review on public health and healthcare resources for pandemic preparedness planning.BMC public health · 2024Pooled it
- The accuracy of forecasted hospital admission for respiratory tract infections in children aged 0-5 years for 2017/2023.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2024Article
- Impact of Age and Variant Time Period on Clinical Presentation and Outcomes of Hospitalized Coronavirus Disease 2019 Patients.Mayo Clinic proceedings. Innovations, quality & outcomes · 2023Article
- Lower transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 among asymptomatic cases: evidence from contact tracing data in Oslo, Norway.BMC medicine · 2022Article
- Age and product dependent vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infection and hospitalisation among adults in Norway: a national cohort study, July-November 2021.BMC medicine · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimTo explore whether the acute 30-day burden of COVID-19 on health care use has changed from February 2020 to February 2022.
methodsIn all Norwegians (N = 493 520) who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in four pandemic waves (February 26th, 2020 -February 16th, 2021 (1st wave dominated by the Wuhan strain), February 17th-July 10th, 2021 (2nd wave dominated by the Alpha variant), July 11th-December 27th, 2021 (3rd wave dominated by the Delta variant), and December 28th, 2021 -January 14th, 2022 (4th wave dominated by the Omicron variant)), we studied the age- and sex-specific share of patients (by age groups 1-19, 20-67, and 68 or more) who had: 1) Relied on self-care, 2) used outpatient care (visiting general practitioners or emergency ward for COVID-19), and 3) used inpatient care (hospitalized ≥24 hours with COVID-19).
resultsWe find a remarkable decline in the use of health care services among COVID-19 patients for all age/sex groups throughout the pandemic. From 83% [95%CI = 83%-84%] visiting outpatient care in the first wave, to 80% [81%-81%], 69% [69%-69%], and 59% [59%-59%] in the second, third, and fourth wave. Similarly, from 4.9% [95%CI = 4.7%-5.0%] visiting inpatient care in the first wave, to 3.6% [3.4%-3.7%], 1.4% [1.3%-1.4%], and 0.5% [0.4%-0.5%]. Of persons testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, 41% [41%-41%] relied on self-care in the 30 days after testing positive in the fourth wave, compared to 16% [15%-16%] in the first wave.
conclusionFrom 2020 to 2022, the use of COVID-19 related outpatient care services decreased with 29%, whereas the use of COVID-19 related inpatient care services decreased with 80%.
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