Foley, Kimberley A;
Maile, Edward J;
Bottle, Alex;
Neale, Francesca K;
Viner, Russell M;
Kenny, Simon E;
Majeed, Azeem;
... Saxena, Sonia; + view all
(2022)
Impact of COVID-19 on primary care contacts with children and young people in England: longitudinal trends study 2015–2020.
British Journal of General Practice
10.3399/BJGP.2021.0643.
(In press).
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: The NHS response to COVID-19 altered provision and access to primary care. AIM: To examine the impact of COVID-19 on GP contacts with children and young people (CYP) in England. DESIGN AND SETTING: A longitudinal trends analysis was undertaken using electronic health records from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) Aurum database. METHOD: All CYP aged <25 years registered with a GP in the CPRD Aurum database were included. The number of total, remote, and face-to-face contacts during the first UK lockdown (March to June 2020) were compared with the mean contacts for comparable weeks from 2015 to 2019. RESULTS: In total, 47 607 765 GP contacts with 4 307 120 CYP were included. GP contacts fell 41% during the first lockdown compared with previous years. Children aged 1-14 years had greater falls in total contacts (≥50%) compared with infants and those aged 15-24 years. Face-to-face contacts fell by 88%, with the greatest falls occurring among children aged 1-14 years (>90%). Remote contacts more than doubled, increasing most in infants (over 2.5-fold). Total contacts for respiratory illnesses fell by 74% whereas contacts for common non-transmissible conditions shifted largely to remote contacts, mitigating the total fall (31%). CONCLUSION: During the COVID-19 pandemic, CYP's contact with GPs fell, particularly for face-to-face assessments. This may be explained by a lower incidence of respiratory illnesses because of fewer social contacts and changing health-seeking behaviour. The large shift to remote contacts mitigated total falls in contacts for some age groups and for common non-transmissible conditions.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Impact of COVID-19 on primary care contacts with children and young people in England: longitudinal trends study 2015–2020 |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3399/BJGP.2021.0643 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0643 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Authors http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This article is Open Access: CC BY 4.0 licence (http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/). |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, adolescent, child, general practice, primary health care |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Population, Policy and Practice Dept UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10150206 |
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