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Coronavirus Disease Pandemic Effect on Medical-Seeking Behaviors Even in One Resource-Competent Community: A Case Controlled Study

(1) Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had overwhelming impacts on medical services. During its initial surge, Taiwan was unique in maintaining its medical services without imposing travel restrictions, which provided an ideal environment in which to test if the fear of bec...

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Autores principales: Wang, Fang, Wu, Jin-Ming, Lin, Yi-Chieh, Ho, Te-Wei, Lin, Hui-Lin, Yu, Hsi-Yu, Lai, I-Rue
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9518467/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36078536
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191710822
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author Wang, Fang
Wu, Jin-Ming
Lin, Yi-Chieh
Ho, Te-Wei
Lin, Hui-Lin
Yu, Hsi-Yu
Lai, I-Rue
author_facet Wang, Fang
Wu, Jin-Ming
Lin, Yi-Chieh
Ho, Te-Wei
Lin, Hui-Lin
Yu, Hsi-Yu
Lai, I-Rue
author_sort Wang, Fang
collection PubMed
description (1) Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had overwhelming impacts on medical services. During its initial surge, Taiwan was unique in maintaining its medical services without imposing travel restrictions, which provided an ideal environment in which to test if the fear of becoming infected with COVID-19 interfered with health-seeking behavior (HSB). We tested this hypothesis among adults with acute complicated appendicitis (ACA). (2) Methods: Adults with acute appendicitis were enrolled between 1 January and 30 June 2020 (COVID-19 period). The first two quarters of the preceding 3 years were defined as a historical control group. Outcome measures included the rate of ACA and the number of hospital stays. (3) Results: The COVID-19 era included 145 patients with acute appendicitis. Compared to the historical control (320 patients), the COVID-19 era was significantly associated with a higher length of symptom duration until presentation to the emergency room within >48 h (17.2% vs. 9.1%, p = 0.011), a higher incidence of ACA (29.7% vs. 19.4%, p = 0.014), and a longer length of hospital stays (5.0 days vs. 4.0 days, p = 0.043). The adjusted models showed that the COVID-19 period had a significant relationship with a higher rate of ACA (odds ratio (OR) = 1.87; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.23–2.52; p = 0.008) and longer length of hospital stays (OR= 2.10; 95% CI: 0.92 to 3.31; p < 0.001). (4) Conclusions: The fear of COVID-19 may prohibit patients from seeking medical help, worsening their clinical outcomes. The surgical community should take action to provide scientific information to relive mental stress.
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spelling pubmed-95184672022-09-29 Coronavirus Disease Pandemic Effect on Medical-Seeking Behaviors Even in One Resource-Competent Community: A Case Controlled Study Wang, Fang Wu, Jin-Ming Lin, Yi-Chieh Ho, Te-Wei Lin, Hui-Lin Yu, Hsi-Yu Lai, I-Rue Int J Environ Res Public Health Article (1) Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had overwhelming impacts on medical services. During its initial surge, Taiwan was unique in maintaining its medical services without imposing travel restrictions, which provided an ideal environment in which to test if the fear of becoming infected with COVID-19 interfered with health-seeking behavior (HSB). We tested this hypothesis among adults with acute complicated appendicitis (ACA). (2) Methods: Adults with acute appendicitis were enrolled between 1 January and 30 June 2020 (COVID-19 period). The first two quarters of the preceding 3 years were defined as a historical control group. Outcome measures included the rate of ACA and the number of hospital stays. (3) Results: The COVID-19 era included 145 patients with acute appendicitis. Compared to the historical control (320 patients), the COVID-19 era was significantly associated with a higher length of symptom duration until presentation to the emergency room within >48 h (17.2% vs. 9.1%, p = 0.011), a higher incidence of ACA (29.7% vs. 19.4%, p = 0.014), and a longer length of hospital stays (5.0 days vs. 4.0 days, p = 0.043). The adjusted models showed that the COVID-19 period had a significant relationship with a higher rate of ACA (odds ratio (OR) = 1.87; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.23–2.52; p = 0.008) and longer length of hospital stays (OR= 2.10; 95% CI: 0.92 to 3.31; p < 0.001). (4) Conclusions: The fear of COVID-19 may prohibit patients from seeking medical help, worsening their clinical outcomes. The surgical community should take action to provide scientific information to relive mental stress. MDPI 2022-08-30 /pmc/articles/PMC9518467/ /pubmed/36078536 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191710822 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Wang, Fang
Wu, Jin-Ming
Lin, Yi-Chieh
Ho, Te-Wei
Lin, Hui-Lin
Yu, Hsi-Yu
Lai, I-Rue
Coronavirus Disease Pandemic Effect on Medical-Seeking Behaviors Even in One Resource-Competent Community: A Case Controlled Study
title Coronavirus Disease Pandemic Effect on Medical-Seeking Behaviors Even in One Resource-Competent Community: A Case Controlled Study
title_full Coronavirus Disease Pandemic Effect on Medical-Seeking Behaviors Even in One Resource-Competent Community: A Case Controlled Study
title_fullStr Coronavirus Disease Pandemic Effect on Medical-Seeking Behaviors Even in One Resource-Competent Community: A Case Controlled Study
title_full_unstemmed Coronavirus Disease Pandemic Effect on Medical-Seeking Behaviors Even in One Resource-Competent Community: A Case Controlled Study
title_short Coronavirus Disease Pandemic Effect on Medical-Seeking Behaviors Even in One Resource-Competent Community: A Case Controlled Study
title_sort coronavirus disease pandemic effect on medical-seeking behaviors even in one resource-competent community: a case controlled study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9518467/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36078536
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191710822
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