Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35940830›Full record

Observational studyBMJ open2022

Impact of COVID-19 on outpatient appointments in children and young people in England: an observational study.

Alex Bottle, Francesca K Neale, Kimberley A Foley, Russell M Viner, Simon Kenny, Paul Aylin, Sonia Saxena, Dougal S Hargreaves

Open access · goldAbstract readObservational Study
In one paragraph

Observational study in BMJ open, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
14citing papers in PubMed
2.6field-weighted citation impact, top 8% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

14 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.

Alex BottleDepartment of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0001-9978-2011
Francesca K NealeDepartment of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK francesca.neale1@nhs.net.ORCID 0000-0002-3316-164X
Kimberley A FoleyDepartment of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-3664-8100
Russell M VinerPopulation, Policy and Practice Research Programme, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health Population Policy and Practice, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-3047-2247
Simon KennyNational Clinical Director, NHS England and NHS Improvement, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-5917-8554
Paul AylinDepartment of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-4589-1743
Sonia SaxenaDepartment of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-3787-2083
Dougal S HargreavesDepartment of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-0722-9847
Imperial College London · GBGreat Ormond Street Hospital · GBUniversity of Liverpool · GB

Funding

Department of Health
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesTo describe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on outpatient appointments for children and young people.

settingAll National Health Service (public) hospitals in England.

participantsAll people in England aged <25 years. OUTCOME MEASURES: Outpatient department attendance numbers, rates and modes (face to face vs telephone) by age group, sex and socioeconomic deprivation.

resultsCompared with the average for January 2017 to December 2019, there was a 3.8 million appointment shortfall (23.5%) for the under-25 population in England between March 2020 and February 2021, despite a total rise in phone appointments of 2.6 million during that time. This was true for each age group, sex and deprivation fifth, but there were smaller decreases in face to face and total appointments for babies under 1 year. For all ages combined, around one in six first and one in four follow-up appointments were by phone in the most recent period. The proportion of appointments attended was high, at over 95% for telephone and over 90% for face-to-face appointments for all ages.

conclusionsCOVID-19 led to a dramatic fall in total outpatient appointments and a large rise in the proportion of those appointments conducted by telephone. The impact that this has had on patient outcomes is still unknown. The differential impact of COVID-19 on outpatient activity in different sociodemographic groups may also inform design of paediatric outpatient services in the post-COVID period.

Indexed as

COVID-19AdolescentAppointments and SchedulesChildEnglandHumansOutpatientsPandemicsState MedicineCOVID-19PAEDIATRICSPUBLIC HEALTH

Identifiers

PMID35940830
PMCPMC9364042
OpenAlexW4290672931

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.