COVID-19 related decline in cancer screenings most pronounced for elderly patients and women in Germany: a claims data analysis

Muschol, Jennifer; Strauss, Cornelia; Gissel, C.

doi:10.1007/s00432-022-04433-z

“…Whether this will change eventually remains to be seen. The fact that care recipients keep foregoing medical treatments and that these treatments are not generally caught up [ 64 ] gives at least some cause for concern. If delayed necessary treatments will not be caught up in a reasonable period, this might still lead to health deterioration in the long run.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Back to normal? The health care situation of home care receivers across Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications on health

Bergmann,

Wagner

2023

PLoS ONE

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The COVID-19 pandemic began impacting Europe in early 2020, posing significant challenges for individuals requiring care. This group is particularly susceptible to severe COVID-19 infections and depends on regular health care services. In this article, we examine the situation of European care recipients aged 50 years and older 18 months after the pandemic outbreak and compare it to the initial phase of the pandemic. In the descriptive section, we illustrate the development of (unmet) care needs and access to health care throughout the pandemic. Additionally, we explore regional variations in health care receipt across Europe. In the analytical section, we shed light on the mid- and long-term health consequences of COVID-19-related restrictions on accessing health care services by making comparisons between care recipients and individuals without care needs. We conducted an analysis using data from the representative Corona Surveys of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Our study examines changes in approximately 3,400 care-dependent older Europeans (aged 50+) interviewed in 2020 and 2021, comparing them with more than 45,000 respondents not receiving care. The dataset provides a cross-national perspective on care recipients across 27 European countries and Israel. Our findings reveal that in 2021, compared to the previous year, difficulties in obtaining personal care from someone outside the household were significantly reduced in Western and Southern European countries. Access to health care services improved over the course of the pandemic, particularly with respect to medical treatments and appointments that had been canceled by health care institutions. However, even 18 months after the COVID-19 outbreak, a considerable number of treatments had been postponed either by respondents themselves or by health care institutions. These delayed medical treatments had adverse effects on the physical and mental health of both care receivers and individuals who did not rely on care.

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“…Whether this will change eventually remains to be seen. The fact that care recipients keep foregoing medical treatments and that these treatments are not generally caught up [61] gives at least some cause for concern. If delayed necessary treatments will not be caught up in a reasonable period, this might still lead to the health deterioration in the long run.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Back to normal? The health care situation of home care receivers across Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications on health

Bergmann¹,

Wagner²

2023

Preprint

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The COVID-19 pandemic began impacting Europe in early 2020, posing significant challenges for individuals requiring care. This group is particularly susceptible to severe COVID-19 infections and depends on regular health care services. In this article, we examine the situation of European care recipients aged 50 years and older 18 months after the pandemic outbreak and compare it to the initial phase of the pandemic. In the descriptive section, we illustrate the development of (unmet) care needs and access to health care throughout the pandemic. Additionally, we explore regional variations in health care receipt across Europe. In the analytical section, we shed light on the mid- and long-term health consequences of COVID-19-related restrictions on accessing health care services by making comparisons between care recipients and individuals without care needs. We conducted an analysis using data from the representative Corona Surveys of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Our study examines changes in approximately 3,400 care-dependent older Europeans (aged 50+) interviewed in 2020 and 2021, comparing them with more than 45,000 respondents not receiving care. The dataset provides a cross-national perspective on care recipients across 27 European countries and Israel. Our findings reveal that in 2021, compared to the previous year, difficulties in obtaining personal care from someone outside the household were significantly reduced in Western and Southern European countries. Access to health care services improved over the course of the pandemic, particularly with respect to medical treatments and appointments that had been canceled by health care institutions. However, even 18 months after the COVID-19 outbreak, a considerable number of treatments had been postponed either by respondents themselves or by health care institutions. These delayed medical treatments had adverse effects on the physical and mental health of both care receivers and individuals who did not rely on care.

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“…Restrictions and isolation of hospitals may reduce the continuity of treatment in hospitals, leading to treatment delays or exclusions for serious complications or emergencies in patients with rare and severe incurable diseases. For example, a reduction in the Utilization of outpatient services, including cancer screenings, was observed internationally [ 12 , 13 ], and the number of emergency department visits in South Korea significantly decreased [ 14 ]. Postponed medical use or changes in expenditure could increase the risk of delayed diagnosis and could be linked to more severe disease progression, which would have a marked indirect impact on long-term death rates [ 15 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of coronavirus disease 2019 on cancer care: How the pandemic has changed cancer utilization and expenditures

Sim,

Shin,

Lee

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

0

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Purpose Since identified in December 2019, the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had a global impact on medical resource use and costs for patients with cancer in South Korea. This study aimed to identify the medical use and costs among patients with cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic, to predict these patterns in South Korea in the future. Methods We conducted a secondary claims data analysis using the National Health Insurance Service database for the calendar period of 2019–2020. Monthly relative percent changes in cancer incidence, medical use, and billing costs for medical care utilization by cancer type were calculated. Then, the medical use and costs after January 2020 were predicted using a time series model with data before the COVID-19 outbreak (2014–2019). Results The incidence of cancer diagnoses has seen a notable decline since the outbreak of the COVID-19 in 2020 as compared to 2019. Despite the impact of COVID-19, there hasn’t been a distinct decline in outpatient utilization when compared to inpatient utilization. While medical expenses for both inpatient and outpatient visits have slightly increased, the number of patients treated for cancer has decreased significantly compared to the previous year. In June 2020, overall outpatient costs experienced the highest increase (21.1%), while individual costs showed the most significant decrease (-4.9%) in June 2020. Finally, the number of hospitalisations and outpatient visits increased slightly from June–July in 2020, reducing the difference between the actual and predicted values. The decrease in the number of inpatient hospitalisations (-22~-6%) in 2020 was also high. Conclusions The overall use of medical services by patients with cancer decreased in 2020 compared with that in the pre-COVID-19 pandemic period. In the future, the government should consider how to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, and establish permanent health policies for patients with cancer.

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COVID-19 related decline in cancer screenings most pronounced for elderly patients and women in Germany: a claims data analysis

Cited by 7 publications

References 44 publications

Back to normal? The health care situation of home care receivers across Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications on health

Back to normal? The health care situation of home care receivers across Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications on health

Back to normal? The health care situation of home care receivers across Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications on health

Impact of coronavirus disease 2019 on cancer care: How the pandemic has changed cancer utilization and expenditures

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