Diagnosis of physical and mental health conditions in primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic: a retrospective cohort study
In this deprived urban UK population, diagnoses of common conditions decreased substantially between Mar and May 2020, suggesting large number of patients have undiagnosed conditions; with a possible rebound in future workload as COVID-19 restrictions ease.
Source:
The Lancet Public Health
SPS commentary:
During these 3 months, there were 1073 first diagnoses of common mental health problems vs. 2147 expected cases based on preceding years, representing a 50·0% reduction. Also compared with expected numbers, 456 fewer diagnoses of circulatory system diseases (43.3% reduction) and 135 fewer type 2 diabetes diagnoses (49.0% reduction1) were observed. The number of first prescriptions of associated medications was also lower than expected for the same time period.