COVID-19 tied to 4% higher healthcare use in the 6 months post-infectionCOVID-19 patients early in the pandemic had 4% higher healthcare use in the 6 months after illness onset than matched controls, most notably for infection-related conditions, hair loss, bronchitis, pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis, and shortness of breath, finds a study today in JAMA Network Open.Kaiser Permanente researchers led the study, which involved 127,859 COVID-19 patients of all ages from eight large US healthcare systems who tested positive for COVID-19 from Mar 1 to Nov 1, 2020, and the same number of matched controls with negative test results.Average age was 41.2 years, 53.7% were female, 51.8% were Hispanic, 26.9% were White, 7.1% were Asian, and 6.2% were Black.
Common underlying medical conditions included high blood pressure (18.2%), overweight or obesity (18.0%), and diabetes (12.3%).
These conditions were more common among controls than COVID-19 patients, except for diabetes, overweight or obesity, and neurologic conditions.
COVID-19 was tied to a 4% rise in healthcare use in the 6 months after infection (ratio of rate ratio [RRR], 1.04), mostly for virtual visits (RRR, 1.14) and emergency department visits (RRR, 1.08).