Effect of COVID-19 pandemic on serious mental illness-related outpatient department utilization in Ningbo, China: an interrupted time series analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Globally, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has negatively affected mental health services, but there is no clear evidence of this in China. Therefore, we examined the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the use of serious mental illness (SMI)-related outpatient services in Ningbo, China.

Methods

We analyzed the trends in monthly SMI-related outpatient department utilization from January 2018 to June 2022 using interrupted time series (ITS) regression analysis, and we defined the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as January 2020. We also performed ITS regression analyses for sex and age subgroups.

Results

A significant difference in the monthly number of outpatient visit slopes before and after the onset of the pandemic was shown in the SMI analy

SUBMITTER: Li L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10372427 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature