Barriers to emergency department usage during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

The objective of this study was to determine the public's likelihood of being willing to use an emergency department (ED) for urgent/emergent illness during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Methods

An institutional review board-approved, cross-sectional survey of a non-probability sample from Amazon Mechanical Turk was administered May 24-25, 2020. Change in self-reported willingness to use an ED before and during the pandemic (primary outcome) was assessed via McNemar's test; COVID-19 knowledge and perceptions were secondary outcomes.

Results

There were 855 survey participants (466 [54.5%] male; 699 [81.8%] White; median age 39). Proportion reporting likelihood to use the ED pre-pandemic (71% [604/855]) decreased significantly during the pa

SUBMITTER: Niforatos JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7771795 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature