Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Utilization of Inpatient Mental Health Services in Shanghai, China

(1) Purpose: The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on mental health and the utilization of hospital-based inpatient mental health care worldwide. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of this pandemic on the utilization of this service in Shanghai by comparison with hospital-based health care records during the preceding 4 years. (2) Methods: The medical records were provided by the Shanghai Municipal Health Insurance Bureau. Diagnostic coding was based on International Classification of Diseases-10th revision (ICD-10), and inpatients with codes from F00 to F99 were examined. (3) Results: Inpatients were compared according to gender, age, pandemic stage, and type of mental disease. Utilization of psychiatric inpatient care in Shanghai during each of the four stages of the pandemic (1 January 2016 to 21 January 2020; 22 January 2020 to 9 February 2020; 10 February 2020 to 1 March 2020; 2 March 2020 to 31 July 2020) was analyzed. Before the lockdown, the utilization of psychiatric inpatient care had an overall upward trend; after the lockdown, the number of inpatients dropped sharply; as of 31 July 2020, it has not been restored. The utilization of this service for most types of mental disease declined rapidly during the pandemic; for vascular dementia (VAD, F01), it was relatively steady. The observed number of inpatient patients was about 51.07% lower than the predicted number in 2020. (4) Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic led to the implementation of prevention and control measures that reduced the utilization of psychiatric inpatient care in Shanghai. The use of inpatient services for categories F20–F29 had the greatest decline, and VAD (F01) had the smallest change during the pandemic. This service consequence of COVID-19 is apparent; to assure access to adequate service during a pandemic, health care professionals should pay close attention to changes in the utilization of different mental health services.