COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the continuity of care for chronic patients: evidence from a cross-sectional retrospective study in a developing country

BMC Primary Care

Research

Hossien Fallahzadeh¹  Azadeh Fatehpanah²  Abbasali Dehghani Tafti²  Ibrahim Salmani²  Sajjad Bahariniya³  Mohammad Amin Bahrami⁴  Gholamreza Ahmadi Tehrani⁵  Ali Ahmadi Tehrani⁶  Hossien Tavangar⁷ 

[1] Center for Healthcare Data Modeling, Departments of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran;Department of Health in Disater and Emergencies, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran;Health Services Management Department, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran;Healthcare Management Department, School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran;International Campus, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran;Pharmaceutical Research Center, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran;School of Nursing and Midwifery, Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Science, Yazd, Iran;

关键词: Continuity of Care;    Hypertension;    Diabetes;    Chronic care;    COVID-19;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12875-023-02086-6

 received in 2023-01-14, accepted in 2023-06-20,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAny disruption in continuity of care for patients with chronic conditions can lead to poor outcomes for the patients as well as great damage for the community and the health system. This study aims to determine the continuity of care for patients with chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes during COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsThrough a cross-sectional retrospective study, data registered in six health centers in Yazd, Iran were analyzed. Data included the number of patients with chronic conditions (hypertension and diabetes) and average daily admission during a year before COVID-19 pandemic and the similar period after COVID-19 outbreak. The experience of continuity of care was assessed applying a validated questionnaire from a sample of 198 patients. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 25. Descriptive statistics, independent T-Test and Multivariable regression were used for analysis.FindingsResults indicate that both visit load of the patients with chronic conditions (hypertension and diabetes) and their average daily admission were decreased significantly during a year after COVID-19 pandemic compared to the similar period before COVID-19 outbreak. The moderate average score of the patients` experience towards continuity of care during the pandemic was also reported. Regression analysis showed that age for the diabetes patients and insurance status for the hypertension patients affect the COC mean scores.ConclusionCOVID-19 pandemic causes serious decline in the continuity of care for patients with chronic conditions. Such a deterioration not only can lead to make these patients` condition worse in a long-term period but also it can make irreparable damages to the whole community and the health system. To make the health systems resilient particularly in disasters, serious attention should be taken into consideration among them, developing the tele-health technologies, improving the primary health care capacity, designing the applied responsive models of continuity of care, making multilateral participations and inter-sectoral collaborations, allocating sustainable resources, and enabling the patients with selfcare skills are more highlighted.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2023

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