A qualitative study of COVID-19 related reasons for delayed presentation of patients with chest pain during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Afr J Emerg Med
; 12(1): 34-38, 2022 Mar.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1499588
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
In previous pandemics such as the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa, it has been observed that patients with non-pandemic related complaints, delay their presentation to hospital. Similarly, delayed presentation of patients with chest pain during the COVID-19 pandemic has been documented. This qualitative study identified the COVID-19 related reasons which lead to this delay.METHODS:
A qualitative study based on 10 individual patient interviews. Half of these were conducted at a public hospital emergency centre (EC) and the other half at a private EC.RESULTS:
A variety of psychosocial factors were identified as themes for delayed presentation. Interestingly, the fear of contracting COVID-19 at the hospital was not found to be an important theme in our study. Rather, confusion around hospital protocols during the pandemic was identified as a recurrent theme.DISCUSSION:
This study found that confusion about COVID-19 hospital protocols was the major pandemic related delaying factor. A number of themes unrelated to COVID-19 were also identified.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Qualitative research
Language:
English
Journal:
Afr J Emerg Med
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.afjem.2021.10.002
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