More than one third of adults aged 18-64 years in the United States delayed or went without medical care because of efforts by patients or providers to reduce the spread of COVID-19, according to a new report from the Urban Institute.
Among the adults who postponed or missed care, 32.6% said the gap worsened one or more health conditions or limited their ability to work or perform daily activities. The findings highlight “the detrimental ripple effects of delaying or forgoing care on overall health, functioning, and well-being,” researchers write.
The survey, conducted among 4007 US adults aged 18-64 in September, found that adults with one or more chronic conditions were more likely than adults without chronic conditions to have delayed or missed care (40.7% vs. 26.4%). Adults with a mental health condition were particularly likely to have delayed or gone without care, write Dulce Gonzalez, MPP, a research associate in the Health Policy Center at the Urban Institute, and colleagues.
Doctors are already seeing the consequences of the missed visits, says Jacqueline W. Fincher, MD, president of the American College of Physicians.
Two of her patients with chronic conditions missed appointments last year. By the time they resumed care in 2021, their previsit lab tests showed significant kidney deterioration.
“Lo and behold, their kidneys were in failure…One was in the hospital for three days and the other one was in for five days,” said Fincher, who practices general internal medicine in Georgia.
Fincher’s office has been proactive about calling patients with chronic diseases who missed follow-up visits or laboratory testing or who may have run out of medication, she said.
In her experience, delays mainly have been due to patients postponing visits. “We have stayed open the whole time now,” Fincher said. Her office offers telemedicine visits and in-person visits with safety precautions.
Still, some patients have decided to postpone care during the pandemic instead of asking their primary care doctor what they should do.
“We do know that chronic problems left without appropriate follow-up can create worse problems for them in terms of stroke, heart attack, and end organ damage,” Fincher said.
Lost Lives
Future studies may help researchers understand the effects of delayed and missed care during the pandemic, said Russell S. Phillips, MD, director of the Center for Primary Care at Harvard Medical School in Boston.
“Although it is still early, and more data on patient outcomes will need to be collected, I anticipate that the…delays in diagnosis, in cancer screening, and in management of chronic illness will result in lost lives, and will emphasize the important role that primary care plays in saving lives,” Phillips said.
During the first several months of the pandemic, there were fewer diagnoses of hypertension, diabetes, and depression, Phillips said.
“In addition, and most importantly, the mortality rate for non-COVID conditions increased, suggesting that patients were not seeking care for symptoms of stroke or heart attack, which can be fatal if untreated,” he said. “We have also seen substantial decreases in cancer screening tests such as colonoscopy, and modeling studies suggest this will cost more lives based on delayed diagnoses of cancer.”
Vaccinating patients against COVID-19 may help primary care practices and patients get back on track, Phillips suggested.
In the meantime, some patients remain reluctant to come in. “Volumes are still lower than prepandemic, so it is challenging to overcome what is likely to be pent-up demand,” he told Medscape Medical News in an email. “Additionally, the continued burden of evaluating, testing, and monitoring patients with COVID or COVID-like symptoms makes it difficult to focus on chronic illness.”
Care Most Often Skipped
The Urban Institute survey asked respondents about delays in prescription drugs, general doctor and specialist visits, going to a hospital, preventive health screenings or medical tests, treatment or follow-up care, dental care, mental health care or counseling, treatment or counseling for alcohol or drug use, and other types of medical care.
Dental care was the most common type of care that adults delayed or did not receive because of the pandemic (25.3%), followed by general doctor or specialist visits (20.6%) and preventive health screenings or medical tests (15.5%).
Black adults were more likely than White or Hispanic/Latinx adults to have delayed or forgone care (39.7% vs. 34.3% and 35.5%), the researchers found. Compared with adults with higher incomes, adults with lower incomes were more likely to have missed multiple types of care (26.6% vs. 20.3%).
The report by the Urban Institute researchers was supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Phillips is an advisor to two telemedicine companies, Bicycle Health and Grow Health. Fincher has disclosed no relevant financial disclosures.
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