Kalanj Karolina, Orbanić Ante, Peček Mirta, Orešković Stjepan, Marshall Rick, Šitum Mirna
Department of Medical Oncology, Clinic of Oncology, Clinical Hospital Center, Zagreb, Croatia.
Andrija Štampar School of Public Health, School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia.
Front Med (Lausanne). 2023 Mar 2;10:1123989. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2023.1123989. eCollection 2023.
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected our society and healthcare system. This study aims to evaluate the effects of COVID-19 on the number of hospitalized patients with dermatological diseases in Croatia, as well as the number of these patients treated surgically and conservatively, before (2017-2019) and during the pandemic (2020-2021).
This is a retrospective, comparative study of the hospital admission rate for patients with skin, subcutaneous tissue, and breast disorders both before and during the pandemic. This study used data from the Croatian Institute of Public Health (CIPH) and the Croatian Health Insurance Fund (CHIF). Inpatient data for the CHIF data collection were categorized using the Australian Refined Diagnosis Related Groups (AR-DRGs). All hospital admissions for dermatology patients at all non-specialized hospitals in Croatia were tracked during two periods, before (2017-2019) and during the pandemic (2020-2021).
The average number of dermatology patients in all hospitals fell by 29% during the pandemic. The overall number of dermatological patients admitted to hospitals fell by 32% in 2020 and by 26% in 2021 when compared to the number of patients admitted each year on average over the preceding 3 years. Additionally, there was an average 22% fall in surgical procedures performed during the pandemic. The only exception for surgical procedures is Major Breast Reconstruction for which is noted an increase, as also for Malignant Breast Disorders, Minor Complexity and Major Skin Disorders, Minor Complexity in a group of non-surgically treated patients.
Examining the all consequences of the Croatian dermatological patient care interruption will require more investigation. Reduced access to medical care during the pandemic is anticipated to lead to later illness diagnosis, a later start to treatment, a poorer disease prognosis, as well as higher medical expenditures.
新冠疫情对我们的社会和医疗系统产生了重大影响。本研究旨在评估新冠疫情对克罗地亚皮肤科疾病住院患者数量的影响，以及在疫情之前（2017 - 2019年）和疫情期间（2020 - 2021年）这些患者接受手术治疗和保守治疗的数量。
这是一项对疫情之前和期间皮肤、皮下组织及乳腺疾病患者住院率的回顾性比较研究。本研究使用了克罗地亚公共卫生研究所（CIPH）和克罗地亚健康保险基金（CHIF）的数据。CHIF数据收集的住院患者数据采用澳大利亚精细诊断相关组（AR - DRGs）进行分类。在两个时间段内追踪了克罗地亚所有非专科医院皮肤科患者的所有住院情况，即疫情之前（2017 - 2019年）和疫情期间（2020 - 2021年）。
疫情期间所有医院皮肤科患者的平均数量下降了29%。与前3年每年平均住院患者数量相比，2020年医院收治的皮肤科患者总数下降了32%，2021年下降了26%。此外，疫情期间进行的外科手术平均下降了22%。外科手术的唯一例外是乳房重建手术，其数量有所增加，非手术治疗患者中的恶性乳腺疾病、轻度复杂和重度皮肤疾病、轻度复杂情况也是如此。
要全面研究克罗地亚皮肤科患者护理中断的所有后果还需要更多调查。预计疫情期间医疗服务可及性降低会导致疾病诊断延迟、治疗开始时间推迟、疾病预后较差以及医疗支出增加。
