Vulnerable patients forgo health care during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Baggio, Stéphanie Vernaz, Nathalie Spechbach, Hervé Salamun, Julien Jacquerioz, Frédérique Stringhini, Silvia Jackson, Yves Guessous, Idris Chappuis, François Wolff, Hans Gétaz, Laurent
Copyright Year	2021
Abstract	During the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, access to health care was limited, and patients encountered important delays for scheduled appointments and care. Empirical data relying on patients' reports of forgoing health care are scarce. This study investigated Covid-19-related self-reports of forgoing health care in a sample of vulnerable outpatients in Geneva, Switzerland. We collected data from 1167 adult outpatients, including clinically vulnerable patients (with chronic diseases), geriatric patients (involved in a health care network for people aged 60 or older), and socially vulnerable patients (involved in a migrant health program or a mobile outpatient community care center) in June 2020. Data on sociodemographic factors, forgoing health care, and anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies were collected. Of the patients, 38.5% reported forgoing health care. Forgoing health care was more frequent for younger patients, women, patients with a low level of education, and patients with a chronic disease (p < .001). There was no significant association between the presence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and forgoing health care (p = .983). As the decrease in routine management of patients might have important and unpredictable adverse health consequences, avoiding delayed health care is crucial.
Related Links	https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC8220858&blobtype=pdf
ISSN	00917435
Journal	Preventive Medicine [Prev Med]
Volume Number	150
DOI	10.1016/j.ypmed.2021.106696
PubMed Central reference number	PMC8220858
PubMed reference number	34174252
e-ISSN	10960260
Language	English
Publisher	The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.
Publisher Date	2021-06-23
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active. © 2021 The Authors
Subject Keyword	Health care access Renunciation SARS-CoV-2 Teleconsultation
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health Epidemiology