Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, UK
Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, UK.
Clin Med (Lond). 2021 Mar;21(2):e171-e178. doi: 10.7861/clinmed.2020-0586.
Large reductions in emergency department attendances and hospitalisations with non-COVID acute medical illness early during the pandemic were attributed to reluctance to seek medical help and higher referral thresholds. Here, we compare acute medical admissions with a comparison cohort from 2017. Deaths in the same geographic area were examined, and Wales-wide deaths during these 4 weeks in 2020 were compared with a seasonally matched period in 2019. There were 528 patients admitted with non-COVID illness in 2020, versus 924 in 2017 (a reduction of 43%). Deaths from non-COVID causes increased by 10.9% compared with 2017, over half this rise being from neurological causes including stroke and dementia. While far fewer patients required hospitalisation as medical emergencies, rises in local non-COVID deaths proved small. Wales-wide non-COVID deaths rose by just 1% compared with 2019. The findings suggest that changes in population behaviour and lifestyle during lockdown brought about unforeseen health benefits.
大流行早期，急诊科就诊人数和非 COVID 急性内科疾病住院人数大幅减少，这归因于人们不愿寻求医疗帮助和转诊门槛提高。在这里，我们将 2020 年的急性内科入院情况与 2017 年的对照组进行了比较。还研究了同一地理区域的死亡情况，并将 2020 年这 4 周的威尔士全地区死亡人数与 2019 年同期的季节性匹配期进行了比较。2020 年有 528 名非 COVID 疾病患者入院，而 2017 年有 924 名（减少了 43%）。与 2017 年相比，非 COVID 原因导致的死亡人数增加了 10.9%，其中一半以上的死亡是由包括中风和痴呆在内的神经疾病引起的。尽管住院治疗的患者作为医疗紧急情况的人数要少得多，但当地非 COVID 死亡人数的上升幅度很小。威尔士全地区非 COVID 死亡人数仅比 2019 年增加了 1%。研究结果表明，封锁期间人口行为和生活方式的改变带来了意想不到的健康益处。
