Nguyen Dieu, Kavanagh Shane, Bowe Steve, Tan Elise, Moodie Marj, Gao Lan
School of Health and Social Development, Institute for Health Transformation, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, 1 Gheringhap St, Geelong, VIC 3220, Australia.
Biostatistics Unit, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, 1 Gheringhap St, Geelong, VIC 3220, Australia.
Eur J Cardiovasc Nurs. 2025 May 28;24(4):547-556. doi: 10.1093/eurjcn/zvae180.
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted healthcare systems and possibly impacted the management of heart failure (HF). This study examined the impact of the pandemic on HF hospitalization activities, outcomes, and costs in Victoria, Australia.
Data on HF hospitalizations were acquired from the Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset. All consecutive patients hospitalized for HF in both public and private hospitals in Victoria between February 2019 and March 2021 were extracted using the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision, Australian Modification. Data were analysed using descriptive analysis and interrupted time series analysis. A total of 85 564 completed admissions were identified, of which 45 080 were hospitalized in the pre-COVID-19 period and 40 484 were hospitalized in the COVID-19 impacted period. A higher average cost per completed admission in the COVID-19 impacted period was observed, while average length of stay (LOS) was not different between the two periods. It was revealed that monthly total LOS and hospitalization activity cost across all HF admissions dropped at the beginning of the pandemic and continued to decrease until the end of the observation period. However, these changes were not statistically significant.
The impacts of COVID-19 on HF hospitalization activities and associated outcomes at the beginning of the pandemic appeared relatively small and were not sustained. Further studies using other data (i.e. linkage data) are required to understand if, or how, the pandemic impacted on HF management in Australia, especially in the long COVID-19 era.
新冠疫情扰乱了医疗系统，并可能影响了心力衰竭（HF）的管理。本研究调查了疫情对澳大利亚维多利亚州HF住院活动、结局和费用的影响。
HF住院数据来自维多利亚州住院病例数据集。使用《国际疾病分类及相关健康问题统计分类，第10次修订版，澳大利亚修订本》提取了2019年2月至2021年3月期间维多利亚州公立和私立医院所有因HF住院的连续患者的数据。采用描述性分析和中断时间序列分析对数据进行分析。共确定了85564例完整的入院病例，其中45080例在新冠疫情前住院，40484例在受新冠疫情影响期间住院。观察到在受新冠疫情影响期间，每次完整入院的平均费用较高，而两个时期的平均住院时间（LOS）没有差异。结果显示，在疫情开始时，所有HF入院病例的每月总住院时间和住院活动费用均下降，并持续下降至观察期结束。然而，这些变化在统计学上并不显著。
在疫情开始时，新冠疫情对HF住院活动及相关结局的影响似乎相对较小，且未持续。需要使用其他数据（即关联数据）进行进一步研究，以了解疫情是否以及如何影响澳大利亚的HF管理，特别是在新冠长期流行时代。
