Quantifying the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gastrointestinal cancer care delivery.
Cancer Rep (Hoboken)
; 5(1): e1427, 2022 01.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1274682
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND AIM:
This study quantifies how changes in healthcare utilization and delivery during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic have altered the presentation, treatment, and management of patients with gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies within an academic health system. METHODS ANDRESULTS:
Patients diagnosed with a GI malignancy (ICD10 C15-C26) who received medical care within the health system during the observation period (first 44 weeks of 2019 and 2020) were identified for a retrospective cohort study. Deidentified patient encounter parameters were collected for this observation period and separated into pre-pandemic (weeks 1-10) and early pandemic (weeks 11-20) study periods. Difference-in-difference analyses adjusted for week-specific and year-specific effects quantified the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on care delivery between pre-pandemic and early pandemic study periods in 2020. Across all GI malignancies, the COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with a significant decline in the number of patients with new patient visits (NPVs) (p = 1.2 × 10-4 ), Radiology encounters (p = 1.9 × 10-7 ), Surgery encounters (p = 1.6 × 10-3 ), Radiation Oncology encounters (p = 4.1 × 10-3 ), and infusion visits (6.1 × 10-5 ). Subgroup analyses revealed cancer-specific variations in changes to delivery. Patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) had the most significant decrease in NPVs (p = 7.1 × 10-5 ), which was significantly associated with a concomitant decrease in colonoscopies performed during the early pandemic period (r2 = 0.722, p = 2.1 × 10-10 ).CONCLUSIONS:
The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with significant disruptions to care delivery. While these effects were appreciated broadly across GI malignancies, CRC, diagnosed and managed by periodic screening, has been affected most acutely.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Delivery of Health Care
/
Gastrointestinal Neoplasms
/
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Language:
English
Journal:
Cancer Rep (Hoboken)
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Cnr2.1427
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS