Impact of COVID-19 on primary care contacts with children and young people in England: longitudinal trends study 2015–2020

[摘要] 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.Results90%). 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.

[学科分类] 卫生学

[关键词] adolescent;child;COVID-19;general practice;primary health care