HIRA Research Institute, Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA), Wonju 26465, Korea.
Department of Health Administration, Graduate School, Yonsei University, Wonju 26493, Korea.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 May 6;19(9):5674. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19095674.
This study explores the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on outpatient visits for all-cause and chronic diseases in 2020. We extracted the data of patients who visited medical institutions over the past five years (2016-2020) from nationwide claims data and measured the number of monthly outpatient visits. A negative binomial regression model was fitted to monthly outpatient visits from 2016 to 2019 to estimate the numbers of 2020. The number of all-cause outpatient visits in 2020 was 12% lower than expected. However, this change was relatively stable in outpatient visits for chronic diseases, which was 2% lower than expected. Deficits in all-cause outpatient visits were observed in all months except January; however, deficits in outpatient visits for chronic diseases have rebounded since April 2020. The levels of change in healthcare utilization were observed differently among disease groups, which indicates that the impacts of the pandemic were disproportionate. This study calls for a policy response to emerging and reemerging infectious diseases, as the findings confirm that a health crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, could disrupt the healthcare system. Assessing the mid-to long-term impacts of COVID-19 on healthcare utilization and health consequences will require further research.
本研究探讨了 2020 年 COVID-19 大流行对全因和慢性病门诊就诊的影响。我们从全国范围内的理赔数据中提取了过去五年（2016-2020 年）就诊患者的数据，并测量了每月门诊就诊次数。使用负二项回归模型拟合了 2016 年至 2019 年的每月门诊就诊次数，以估计 2020 年的就诊次数。2020 年全因门诊就诊次数比预期低 12%。然而，慢性病门诊就诊次数的变化相对稳定，比预期低 2%。除了 1 月，所有月份的全因门诊就诊次数都出现了不足；然而，自 2020 年 4 月以来，慢性病门诊就诊次数已经出现反弹。不同疾病组之间的医疗利用水平变化不同，这表明大流行的影响是不均衡的。本研究呼吁对新发和再发传染病采取政策应对，因为研究结果证实，像 COVID-19 大流行这样的卫生危机可能会扰乱医疗体系。评估 COVID-19 对医疗利用和健康后果的中长期影响需要进一步研究。
