Ontario, Canada, healthcare systems saw an uptick in healthcare use by adult COVID-19 survivors—especially women—starting 2 months after people were infected, placing more demand on an atrophied healthcare workforce, finds a study with implications for long COVID and hospital resources long term published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ).Researchers from ICES (formerly the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences) followed 531,702 people in Ontario starting 2 months after they were tested for COVID-19 from Jan 1, 2020, to Mar 31, 2021, a period in which COVID-19 vaccines weren't widely available.The 268,521 infected participants were matched in a 1:1 ratio with those who tested negative.
Average age was 44 years, 51% were women, 0.5% had received at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and average follow-up was 240 days.Highest use concentrated in small subsetOverall, the average days in the hospital per person-year rose 47% for women and 53% for men.
Women who tested positive for COVID-19 had 1.98 more healthcare visits per person-year than those who tested negative, with 0.31 more home-care encounters and 0.81 more days in long-term care but no difference in emergency department (ED) visits.
About 1% of infected women had 6.48 more days in the hospital and 28.37 more home-care visits.The rate ratio (RR) for test-positive versus test-negative women was 1.14 for total healthcare visits, 2.51 for days in long-term care, 1.48 for days in a hospital, 1.07 for home-care visits, and 1.06 for outpatient visits, with no difference for ED visits.