Changes in the proportion and severity of patients with fever or common cold symptoms utilizing an after-hours house call medical service during the COVID-19 pandemic in Tokyo, Japan: a retrospective cohort study.
BMC Emerg Med
; 21(1): 64, 2021 05 29.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1247575
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Trends in the characteristics and disease severity of patients using an after-hours house call (AHHC) medical service changed during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. However, there have been no reports on this issue since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to investigate patients' tendencies to utilize an AHHC medical service for fever or common cold symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic.METHODS:
This retrospective cohort study compared the characteristics and disease severity of patients with fever or common cold symptoms utilizing an AHHC medical service offered by a single large company between the control period (December 1, 2018 to April 30, 2019) and the COVID-19 pandemic exposure period (December 1, 2019 to April 30, 2020). We also assessed the proportion of these patients in relation to all patients calling the service for any reason.RESULTS:
During the control and COVID-19 pandemic exposure periods, a total of 6462 and 10,003 patients consulted the AHHC medical service, respectively. Of these, 5335 (82.6%) and 7423 (74.2%) patients had fever and common cold symptoms, respectively, during the control and COVID-19 pandemic exposure periods (P < 0.001). The corresponding median (interquartile range) ages were 8 (3-11) and 10 (4-33) years, respectively. The distribution of disease severity differed between the groups. The proportions of patients with mild, moderate, and severe illness were 71.1, 28.7, and 0.2% in the control period and 42.3, 56.7, and 0.9% in the COVID-19 pandemic exposure period, respectively (P < 0.001).CONCLUSIONS:
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the proportion of patients with fever or common cold symptoms was lower than that in the control period, but disease severity was significantly higher.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Severity of Illness Index
/
Common Cold
/
After-Hours Care
/
Fever
/
COVID-19
/
House Calls
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Adult
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
BMC Emerg Med
Journal subject:
Emergency Medicine
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S12873-021-00458-8
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