The change of healthcare service in Chinese patients with inflammatory bowel disease during the pandemic: a national multicenter cross-sectional study

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 20084
• Main Authors: Li, Xiaofei, Wang, Fang, Jia, Yizhen, Zhou, He, Shi, Yanting, Tian, Feng, Chen, Yan, Liang, Jie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 16.11.2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 692/699/1503/257; 692/700/478; Colitis, Ulcerative - epidemiology; COVID-19; Crohn Disease - epidemiology; Crohn's disease; Cross-Sectional Studies; Delivery of Health Care; East Asian People; Epidemics; Health care; Health Care Costs; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Inflammatory bowel disease; Inflammatory bowel diseases; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases - epidemiology; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases - therapy; Intestine; multidisciplinary; Outbreaks; Pandemics; Patients; Public health; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Telemedicine; Ulcerative colitis; China
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-46892-5

The pandemic of COVID-19 was a major public health events and had a deeply impact on the healthcare acquired by patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term impacts on healthcare service in Chinese IBD patients under the dynamic zero-COVID strategy. The study was performed in the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Quality of Care Centers in mainland China in 2021. The data about the healthcare was collected by a 44-item questionnaire. Totally 463 were from ulcerative colitis (UC) patients and 538 from Crohn’s disease (CD) patients were included in the study. The pandemic impacted 37.5% patients on their treatment, and the biggest problem was unable to follow up timely (77.9%). There was a significant increase in healthcare costs in CD ( P  < 0.001) and no significant change in UC ( P  = 0.14) after the outbreak. Both UC and CD had an increase in the frequency of outpatient visits (UC 5.07 vs. 4.54, P  = 0.001; CD 6.30 vs. 5.76, P  = 0.002), and hospitalizations (UC 1.30 vs. 1.02, P  < 0.001; CD 3.55 vs. 2.78, P  < 0.001). The hospitalization rate in UC reduced slightly (40.2% vs. 42.8%, P  = 0.423) after the outbreak, but it significantly increased in CD (75.8% vs. 67.8%, P  = 0.004). The rate of biologics had significant increased (UC 11.2% vs. 17.7%, P  = 0.005; CD 53.2% vs. 71.0%, P  < 0.001). Besides, the proportion of people using telemedicine also increased from 41.6% to 55.1% ( P  < 0.001). However, 82.8% patients still preferred face-to-face visits. Recurrent outbreaks and the regular pandemic prevention and control policy had a long-term impact on medical care service for IBD patients. The preferred mode of healthcare was still face-to-face visit. It will be a long way to go in the construction of telemedicine in China.