Observatory of Perinatal Clinical Psychology, Section of Neuroscience, Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy.
Units of Biostatistics and Biomathematics and Bioinformatics, Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy.
Front Public Health. 2021 Jul 16;9:701638. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.701638. eCollection 2021.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is strongly changing the way most people live their lives, and disrupting specialist healthcare systems. Such public health disruptions have resulted in significant collateral damage with particular implications for vulnerable populations, including the perinatal population. This Study aims to estimate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Italian maternal and perinatal health care services. A questionnaire was designed to evaluate the COVID-19 impact on Italian maternal and perinatal healthcare facilities and their activities and provision of services from March to May 2020. The survey was completed by hospital-based and community-based Italian maternal and perinatal healthcare facilities. Most of these were located in Lombardy or Veneto (the most affected Italian regions). 70% of all facilities reported that the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic negatively influenced the functioning of one or more aspects of the perinatal service; only 28.4% of facilities all over the country continued to provide outpatient routine visits and examinations as usual; 23.4% of facilities became understaffed during the index period due to various reasons such as ward transfer and sick leave. This is the first Italian study, and among very few international studies that describe the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on antenatal and postnatal healthcare facilities and their provision of activities and services. Our findings confirm that healthcare systems even in high-income countries were not entirely prepared to handle such a global health emergency; indeed, specialized maternal and perinatal healthcare services have been disrupted by this global health emergency.
2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行正在强烈改变大多数人的生活方式，并扰乱了专业医疗保健系统。这种公共卫生的破坏造成了重大的附带损害，对弱势群体，包括围产期人群，产生了特别的影响。本研究旨在评估 COVID-19 对意大利母婴保健服务的影响。设计了一份问卷，以评估 COVID-19 对意大利母婴保健设施及其活动的影响，以及从 2020 年 3 月至 5 月提供服务的情况。这项调查是由基于医院和社区的意大利母婴保健设施完成的。这些设施大多数位于伦巴第或威尼托（意大利受影响最严重的地区）。所有设施中有 70%报告说，COVID-19 大流行的第一波对围产期服务的一个或多个方面的运作产生了负面影响；全国只有 28.4%的设施仍像往常一样提供门诊常规就诊和检查；在指数期内，由于病房转移和病假等各种原因，23.4%的设施出现人员短缺。这是意大利的第一项研究，也是少数描述 COVID-19 大流行对产前和产后保健设施及其活动和服务提供影响的国际研究之一。我们的研究结果证实，即使在高收入国家，医疗保健系统也没有完全准备好应对这种全球卫生紧急情况；事实上，专门的母婴保健服务已经受到这一全球卫生紧急情况的干扰。
