ArticleJournal of preventive medicine and hygiene2024
The impact of SARS-CoV-2 on emergency health care demand: inverse relationship between COVID-like illnesses and ED accesses in Genoa, Italy.
Article in Journal of preventive medicine and hygiene, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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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.
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Abstract
Introduction: SARS-CoV-2 has changed the demand for in-person health care. The aim of this study was to retrospectively analyzed data on access to San Martino Hospital Emergency Department (ED), Genoa, Italy, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Descriptive statistics for 180,117 records of patients accessing the ED between 2019 and 2021 were reported. A linear regression model was built to evaluate the relationship between the weekly number of COVID-like illness cases and ED attendances. Results: In comparison to pre-pandemic levels, the median number of ED visits declined by 41.6% in 2020 and by 27.4% in 2021. The period of maximum drop in access (-61.9%) was the 2020 12-16th calendar weeks and coincided with the highest rates of COVID-like illness cases (+360%; 22.8% of total ED attendances). About 20% of the variation of the weekly number of ED attendances was explained by the number of COVID-like illness cases. In 2020 and 2021 non-urgent ED codes decreased (-6.7%; -7.3%) and both urgent and emergency ED codes increased (+4.8% and +3.9% the first; +1.9% and +3.5% the second). However, the absolute number of ED access fell drastically for all codes. In particular, the highest increase was registered in 2020 for acute respiratory infections (ARI), including COVID-19 (+3.28%), while traumas and eye diseases saw the highest decrease (-1.02%; -3.80%). Conclusions: While the reduction in non-urgent visits suggests avoidable pre-pandemic access levels, the decline in non-COVID-19 urgent accesses potentially points to an increase in delayed and missed care.
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