ArticleEuropean journal of public health2024
Has the COVID-19 pandemic changed existing patterns of non-COVID-19 health care utilization? A retrospective analysis of six regions in Europe.
Article in European journal of public health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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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
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Feasibility of mapping cross-country population coronavirus disease 2019 metrics in a federated design: learnings from a HealthData@EU Pilot use case.European journal of public health · 2025Observational
- Leveraging big data in health care and public health for AI driven talent development in rural areas.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Bridging borders: Current trends and future directions in comparative health systems research.Health services research · 2024Article
- Towards a European health information system: The BRIDGE Health, InfAct and PHIRI projects.Journal of health monitoring · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
16 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundResilience of national health systems in Europe remains a major concern in times of multiple crises and as more evidence is emerging relating to the indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on health care utilization (HCU), resulting from de-prioritization of regular, non-pandemic healthcare services. Most extant studies focus on regional, disease specific or early pandemic HCU creating difficulties in comparing across multiple countries. We provide a comparatively broad definition of HCU across multiple countries, with potential to expand across regions and timeframes.
methodsUsing a cross-country federated research infrastructure (FRI), we examined HCU for acute cardiovascular events, elective surgeries and serious trauma. Aggregated data were used in forecast modelling to identify changes from predicted European age-standardized counts via fitted regressions (2017-19), compared against post-pandemic data.
resultsWe found that elective surgeries were most affected, universally falling below predicted levels in 2020. For cardiovascular HCU, we found lower-than-expected cases in every region for heart attacks and displayed large sex differences. Serious trauma was the least impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
conclusionThe strength of this study comes from the use of the European Population Health Information Research Infrastructure's (PHIRI) FRI, allowing for rapid analysis of regional differences to assess indirect impacts of events such as pandemics. There are marked differences in the capacity of services to return to normal in terms of elective surgery; additionally, we found considerable differences between men and women which requires further research on potential sex or gender patterns of HCU during crises.
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