COVID-19 Tied to Significant Increase in Outpatient Health Care
By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, Feb. 13, 2024 -- Outpatient use increases significantly in the month after COVID-19 infection when compared with uninfected individuals, according to a study published online Feb. 9 in JAMA Network Open.
Paul L. Hebert, Ph.D., from the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle, and colleagues compared outpatient health care use across six categories of care (primary care, specialty care, surgery care, mental health, emergency care, and diagnostic and/or other care) between 202,803 veterans with and 202,803 veterans without COVID-19 infection (2019 through 2022).
The researchers found that outpatient use in all categories except surgical care was significantly elevated during the peri-infection period for veterans with COVID-19 infection versus the uninfected cohort. There was an increase of 5.12 visits per 30 days across all visit types, predominantly owing to primary care visits (increase of 1.86 visits per 30 days). While differences in outpatient use attenuated over time, visits remained significantly higher at 184 to 365 days after infection (increase of 0.25 visit per 30 days). Half of the increased outpatient visits were delivered via telehealth. The greatest increase in utilization was seen for veterans aged 85 years and older (6.1 visits) versus those aged 20 to 44 years (4.8 visits). Increases were also greater for unvaccinated veterans (4.5 visits) versus vaccinated veterans (3.2 visits).
"These results suggest long-term impacts of COVID-19 infection on outpatient health care use and highlight the important role of telehealth in the delivery of primary care to veterans with COVID-19 infections," the authors write.
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
© 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted February 2024
Further Support and Information on COVID-19
Read this next
Mortality Higher for COVID-19 Hospitalization Than for Flu in 2023/2024 Season
WEDNESDAY, May 22, 2024 -- In fall/winter 2023/2024, the risk for death in patients hospitalized for COVID-19 was greater than the risk for death in patients hospitalized for...
Global Life Expectancy, Disease Burden Set to Keep Improving
WEDNESDAY, May 22, 2024 -- Life expectancy and age-standardized disease burden are expected to continue improving between 2022 and 2050, according to the Global Burden of Disease...
Long COVID Definitions, Care Models Are Evolving
MONDAY, May 20, 2024 -- Definitions of long COVID and care models are evolving, but considerable variability is seen in these models, according to a review published online May 21...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.