COVID-19 pandemic and families' utilization of well-child clinics and pediatric practices attendance in Germany

BMC Research Notes

Christoph Beger¹  Roland Pfaeffle¹  Ruth Gausche¹  Christof Meigen²  Mandy Vogel²  Antje Körner²  Anne Jurkutat²  Wieland Kiess²  Tanja Poulain² 

[1] Department of Women and Child Health, Center for Pediatric Research, Leipzig University, Liebigstr. 20a, 04103, Leipzig, Germany;Leipzig University Hospital for Children and Adolescents, CrescNet, Leipzig University, Liebigstr. 22a, 04103, Leipzig, Germany;Leipzig University Hospital for Children and Adolescents, LIFE Child, Leipzig University, Ph.-Rosenthal-Str. 27, 04103, Leipzig, Germany;Department of Women and Child Health, Center for Pediatric Research, Leipzig University, Liebigstr. 20a, 04103, Leipzig, Germany;

关键词: COVID-19;    Health care utilization;    Pediatrics;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s13104-021-05562-3

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

ObjectiveThe COVID-19 pandemic and the measures implemented to stop the pandemic had a broad impact on our daily lives. Besides work and social life, health care is affected on many levels. In particular, there is concern that attendance in health care programs will drop or hospital admissions will be delayed due to COVID-19-related anxieties, especially in children. Therefore, we compared the number of weekly visits to 78 German pediatric institutions between 2019 and 2020.ResultsWe found no significant differences during the first 10 weeks of the year. However, and importantly, from April, the weekly number of visits was more than 35% lower in 2020 than in 2019 (p = 0.005). In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to relate to families´ utilization of outpatient well-child clinics and pediatric practice attendance in Germany.

【 授权许可】

CC BY