Health-seeking behavior of COVID-19 cases during the first eight weeks of the outbreak in Singapore: differences between local community and imported cases and having visits to single or multiple healthcare providers

BMC Public Health

Vernon J. M. Lee¹  Wycliffe Enli Wei²  Min Zhi Tay²  Li Wei Ang²  Matthias Paul H. S. Toh³  Yee-Sin Leo⁴ 

[1] Ministry of Health, Singapore, Singapore;Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, Singapore, Singapore;National Public Health and Epidemiology Unit, National Centre for Infectious Diseases, 16 Jalan Tan Tock Seng, 308442, Singapore, Singapore;National Public Health and Epidemiology Unit, National Centre for Infectious Diseases, 16 Jalan Tan Tock Seng, 308442, Singapore, Singapore;Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, Singapore, Singapore;Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, Singapore, Singapore;Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore, Singapore;Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Singapore, Singapore;Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Singapore, Singapore;National Centre for Infectious Diseases, Singapore, Singapore;

关键词: Primary Care;    Coronavirus;    Outbreaks;    Epidemiology;    Health Behavior;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12889-022-12637-8

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundCOVID-19 is a novel pandemic affecting almost all countries leading to lockdowns worldwide. In Singapore, locally-acquired cases emerged after the first wave of imported cases, and these two groups of cases may have different health-seeking behavior affecting disease transmission. We investigated differences in health-seeking behavior between locally-acquired cases and imported cases, and within the locally-acquired cases, those who saw single versus multiple healthcare providers.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective study of 258 patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 from 23 January to 17 March 2020. Variables related to health-seeking behavior included number of visits prior to hospitalization, timing of the first visit, duration from symptom onset to admission, and places where the cases had at least one visit.ResultsLocally-acquired cases had longer duration from onset of symptoms to hospital admission (median 6 days, interquartile range [IQR] 4–9) than imported cases (median 4 days, IQR 2–7) (p < 0.001). Singapore residents were more likely to have at least one visit to private clinics and/or government-subsidized public clinics than non-residents (84.0% vs. 58.7%, p < 0.001). Among locally-acquired cases, those who sought care from a single healthcare provider had fewer visits before their hospital admissions compared with those who went to multiple providers (median 2 vs. 3, p = 0.001).ConclusionOur study indicates the need to encourage individuals to seek medical attention early on in their patient journey, particularly from the same healthcare provider. This in turn, would facilitate early detection and isolation, hence limiting local transmission and enabling better control of the COVID-19 outbreak.

【 授权许可】

CC BY