ArticleCMAJ open
Visits to the emergency department by community-dwelling people with dementia during the first 2 waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario: a repeated cross-sectional analysis.
Article in CMAJ open. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled 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.
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
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A Meta-Analysis of Sex-Based Differences in Health Service Use for Persons Living With Dementia Between 2018 and 2020 in Four Canadian Provinces.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2026Pooled it
- The Global Impact of COVID-19 Control Measures on People With Dementia Living at Home and Their Carers: A Systematic Review of Quantitative and Qualitative Research Across 27 Countries.Brain and behavior · 2025Pooled it
- Supporting older people with cognitive impairment during and after hospital stays with intersectoral care management (intersec-CM)-results of a randomised clinical trial.Age and ageing · 2025Trial
- Differences in admission to trauma centres by sex among adults with traumatic brain injury: a population-based cohort study.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2026Article
- Family physician and specialist care for persons with dementia living in the community: through thick and thin.Family practice · 2025Article
- Changes in the Emergency Department Visits Among the Older Adults With Dementia Before, and After the Nationwide Social Distancing Measures: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis.International journal of geriatric psychiatry · 2025Article
- The COVID-19 Pandemic and Dementia: a Multijurisdictional Meta-Analysis of the Impact of the First Two Pandemic Waves on Acute Health-care Utilization and Mortality in Canada.Canadian geriatrics journal : CGJ · 2025Article
- Acute care pathway assessed through performance indicators during the COVID-19 pandemic in OECD countries (2020-2021): a scoping review.BMC emergency medicine · 2024Article
- Article
- Recent functional decline and outpatient follow-up after hospital discharge: a cohort study.BMC geriatrics · 2023Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundCommunity-dwelling people with dementia have been affected by COVID-19 pandemic health risks and control measures that resulted in worsened access to health care and service cancellation. One critical access point in health systems is the emergency department. We aimed to determine the change in weekly rates of visits to the emergency department of community-dwelling people with dementia in Ontario during the first 2 waves of the COVID-19 pandemic compared with historical patterns.
methodsWe conducted a population-based repeated cross-sectional study and used health administrative databases to compare rates of visits to the emergency department among community-dwelling people with dementia who were aged 40 years and older in Ontario during the first 2 waves of the COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020-February 2021) with the rates of a historical period (March 2019-February 2020). Weekly rates of visits to the emergency department were evaluated overall, by urgency and by chapter from the
resultsWe observed large immediate declines in rates of visits to the emergency department during the COVID-19 pandemic (rate ratio [RR] 0.50, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.47-0.53), which remained below historical levels by the end of the second wave (RR 0.88, 95% CI 0.83-0.92). Rates of both nonurgent (RR 0.33, 95% CI 0.28-0.39) and urgent (RR 0.51, 95% CI 0.48-0.55) visits to the emergency department also declined and remained low (RR 0.68, 95% CI 0.59-0.79, RR 0.91, 95% CI 0.86-0.96), respectively. Visits for injuries, and circulatory, respiratory and musculoskeletal diseases declined and remained below historical levels.
interpretationProlonged reductions in visits to the emergency department among people with dementia during the first 2 pandemic waves raise concerns about patients who delay seeking acute care services. Understanding the long-term effects of these reductions requires further research.
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.