Patterns of Emergency Department visits for acute and chronic diseases during the two pandemic waves in Italy.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Evidence is lacking about the impact of subsequent COVID-19 pandemic waves on Emergency Departments (ED). We analyzed the differences in patterns of ED visits in Italy during the two pandemic waves, focusing on changes in accesses for acute and chronic diseases.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective study using data from a metropolitan area in northern Italy that includes twelve ED. We analyzed weekly trends in non-COVID-19 ED visits during the first (FW) and second wave (SW) of the pandemic. Incidence rate ratios (IRRs) of triage codes, patient destination, and cause-specific ED visits in the FW and SW of the year 2020 vs. 2019 were estimated using Poisson regression models.

Main findings

We found a significant decrease of ED visits by triage code, which wa

SUBMITTER: Golinelli D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9758955 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature