Impact of COVID-19 on pregnancy-related healthcare utilisation: a prospective nationwide registry study.
BMJ Open
; 12(10): e064118, 2022 10 17.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2078990
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
To assess the impact of COVID-19 on pregnancy-related healthcare utilisation and differences across social groups.DESIGN:
Nationwide longitudinal prospective registry-based study.SETTING:
Norway.PARTICIPANTS:
Female residents aged 15-50 years (n=1 244 560). MAIN OUTCOMEMEASURES:
Pregnancy-related inpatient, outpatient and primary care healthcare utilisation before the COVID-19 pandemic (prepandemic 1 January to 11 March 2020), during the initial lockdown (first wave 12 March to 3 April 2020), during the summer months of low restrictions (summer period 4 April to 31 August 2020) and during the second wave to the end of the year (second wave 1 September to 31 December 2020). Rates were compared with the same time periods in 2019.RESULTS:
There were 130 924 inpatient specialist care admissions, 266 015 outpatient specialist care consultations and 2 309 047 primary care consultations with pregnancy-related diagnostic codes during 2019 and 2020. After adjusting for time trends and cofactors, inpatient admissions were reduced by 9% (adjusted incidence rate ratio (aIRR)=0.91, 95% CI 0.87 to 0.95), outpatient consultations by 17% (aIRR=0.83, 95% CI 0.71 to 0.86) and primary care consultations by 10% (aIRR=0.90, 95% CI 0.89 to 0.91) during the first wave. Inpatient care remained 3%-4% below prepandemic levels throughout 2020. Reductions according to education, income and immigrant background were also observed. Notably, women born in Asia, Africa or Latin America had a greater reduction in inpatient (aIRR=0.87, 95% CI 0.77 to 0.97) and outpatient (aIRR 0.90, 95% CI 0.86 to 0.95) care during the first wave, compared with Norwegian-born women. We also observed that women with low education had a greater reduction in inpatient care during summer period (aIRR=0.88, 95% CI 0.83 to 0.92), compared with women with high educational attainment.CONCLUSION:
Following the introduction of COVID-19 mitigation measures in Norway in March 2020, there were substantial reductions in pregnancy-related healthcare utilisation, especially during the initial lockdown and among women with an immigrant background.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Prenatal Care
/
Patient Acceptance of Health Care
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Middle aged
/
Pregnancy
/
Young adult
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
English
Journal:
BMJ Open
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Bmjopen-2022-064118
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