By IDSE News Staff
Patients with COVID-19 are associated with increased healthcare services over the six months following their initial infection, according to a large recent study.
The study of more than 250,000 people led by Kaiser Permanente Southern California, included patients of all ages from eight large integrated healthcare organizations across the United States who completed a COVID-19 diagnostic test between March 1 and Nov. 1, 2020 (JAMA Netw Open 2022;5[8]:e2225657. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.25657). The study was conducted within the Vaccine Safety Datalink, a research collaboration led by the CDC that combines electronic health record databases for use in large epidemiological studies. The eight sites were Kaiser Permanente Southern California, Denver Health, HealthPartners Institute, Kaiser Permanente Colorado, Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Kaiser Permanente Washington and Marshfield Clinic Research Institute.
The patients enrolled were matched on age, sex, race, ethnicity, location and date of COVID-19 and then followed for six months. The researchers found overall COVID-19 infection was associated with a 4% increase in healthcare use over six months—predominantly virtual appointments, followed by emergency department visits.
The largest increase of additional COVID-19–related healthcare utilization was observed from healthcare encounters specific to 18 conditions that remained elevated during the six months following the acute stage of infection. Those conditions included long COVID, alopecia, bronchitis, pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis, and difficulty breathing. In total, 212.9 additional healthcare encounters per 1,000 COVID-19 patients accounted for the extra healthcare utilization in the six months following COVID-19 infections.
This study is also one of the largest and most comprehensive of post–COVID-19 healthcare utilization among children under the age of 17 years. Over the six months following infection, COVID-19–positive children experienced pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis, irregular heartbeat, difficulty breathing, and ear, nose and throat disorders that resulted in increased healthcare use.
“This study showed us that, in terms of the number of follow-up visits, a substantial amount of healthcare utilization occurs in the six months following the acute stage of SARS-CoV-2 infection, which highlights the potential for COVID-19 to exert an ongoing demand on healthcare organizations,” said lead author Sara Y. Tartof, PhD, an epidemiologist with the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research & Evaluation and a faculty member of the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine, in Pasadena, Calif. “A 4% increase in encounters applied across a large population is a large number of visits associated with substantial cost. The absolute number is big. In this case, it was over 27,000 extra encounters among the eight healthcare organizations included in this study.”
Dr. Tartof added that on a broader scale, this study will help healthcare organizations develop long-term strategic plans to meet the needs of COVID-19 patients.
