ArticleAcute and critical care2026
Direct and indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality and critical care utilization in South Korea.
Article in Acute and critical care, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had unprecedented global impact, with significant effects on mortality and healthcare utilization. This study evaluated the direct and indirect impacts of COVID-19 on mortality and healthcare utilization in South Korea, a country that implemented strict public health measures. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis using national databases from January 2015 through May 2022. The study compared mortality patterns and intensive care unit (ICU) utilization during the epidemic period (2020-2021) with the reference period (2015-2019). We analyzed excess mortality using a random-coefficient Poisson regression model and examined cause-specific mortality patterns for pneumonia, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. ICU admission trends were assessed using annual percent change (APC) and average annual percent change (AAPC) analyses. Results: The study revealed a distinctive two-phase pattern in COVID-19-related excess mortality: minimal excess deaths until June 2021, followed by a significant increase culminating in 18,068 excess deaths (P-score, 68.39%) during the fifth wave in March 2022. COVID-19 deaths accounted for approximately 45% of excess deaths during this period. Analysis of cause-specific mortality demonstrated temporal shifts in cardiovascular disease and pneumonia deaths from their typical January peaks to March-April 2022. Cardiovascular disease showed significant excess mortality during the fifth wave (z=6.18, P<0.001), while pneumonia mortality was below expected levels when accounting for pre-existing trends. Case fatality rate declined from an initial 9.50% to below 1% by 2022, despite increased case numbers. ICU admissions for non-COVID patients showed a consistent declining trend, with the most substantial decrease (-11.48%) observed in April 2020 during the first epidemic wave. Conclusions: These findings suggest that COVID-19 affected population health through both direct viral infection and indirect effects on healthcare systems and utilization patterns. The study highlights the importance of maintaining critical care capacity for all patient groups during public health emergencies and the need for strategies to balance resource allocation.
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.