Brief Report: Supporting Access to HIV Care for Children and Youth During the COVID-19 Pandemic With Telemedicine and Rideshare.
J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr
; 88(4): 384-388, 2021 12 01.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2231984
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we scaled up telemedicine and rideshare services for clinic and laboratory visits for pediatric and adolescent patients with HIV.SETTING:
HIV subspecialty program for patients aged 0-24 years at Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC.METHODS:
Using the χ2 and Wilcoxon rank sum tests, we compared demographics, visit and laboratory data, and rideshare usage among patients who scheduled telemedicine at least once (telemedicine) versus those who never scheduled telemedicine (no-telemedicine) during the pandemic (April-September 2020). We compared the number and proportion of scheduled and completed clinic visits before the pandemic (April-September 2019) with those during the pandemic.RESULTS:
We analyzed 178 pediatric and adolescent patients with HIV (median age 17.9 years, 89.3% Black, 48.9% male patients, 78.7% perinatally infected), of whom 70.2% and 28.6% used telemedicine and rideshare, respectively. Telemedicine patients scheduled more visits (236 vs 179, P < 0.0001) and completed a similar proportion of visits (81.8% vs 86.0%, P = 0.3805) compared with no-telemedicine patients. Laboratory testing rates (81.3% versus 98.5%, P = 0.0005) were lower in telemedicine patients compared with no-telemedicine patients. Rideshare usage (12.4% versus 26.5%, P = 0.0068) was lower in telemedicine versus no-telemedicine patients. During the pandemic, most of the patients (81.0%) had HIV RNA <200 copies/mL. The total number of completed visits and the proportion of visits completed were similar before and during the pandemic.CONCLUSION:
Most of the pediatric and adolescent patients with HIV used telemedicine and maintained HIV RNA <200 copies/mL during the pandemic. Despite rideshare usage, laboratory testing rates were lower with telemedicine compared with in-person visits.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
HIV Infections
/
Transportation of Patients
/
Telemedicine
/
Pandemics
/
COVID-19
/
Health Services Accessibility
Type of study:
Observational study
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Child
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Language:
English
Journal:
J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr
Journal subject:
SINDROME DA IMUNODEFICIENCIA ADQUIRIDA (AIDS)
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
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