Impact of COVID-19 by Pandemic Wave among Patients with Gastroenterology Symptoms in the Emergency Departments at a Medical Center in Taiwan

Tony Kuo, Chun-Hao Liu, Cheng-Yu Chien and Chung-Cheng Yeh
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Tony Kuo: Department of Hepatology and Gastroenterology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou, Taoyuan City 333, Taiwan
Chun-Hao Liu: College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan City 333, Taiwan
Cheng-Yu Chien: Graduate Institute of Management, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan City 333, Taiwan
Chung-Cheng Yeh: Department of Emergency Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Keelung, Keelung City 204, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 12, 1-8

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected emergency department (ED) usage. This study examines changes in the number of ED visits for gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding and nonemergency GI conditions, such as acute gastroenteritis (AGE) and constipation, before the pandemic and at the peak and slack periods of the pandemic in Taiwan. This retrospective observational study was conducted at a referral medical center in northern Taiwan. We recorded the number of weekly ED visits for GI bleeding, AGE, and constipation from 2019 to 2021. We then compared the baseline period (calendar weeks 4–18 and 21–31, 2019) with two peak pandemic periods (period 1, calendar weeks 4–18, 2020; period 2, calendar weeks 21–31, 2021) and their corresponding slack periods. The decline in the number of ED visits during the two peak pandemic periods for GI bleeding (−18.4% and −30.2%) were not as substantial as for AGE (−64.1% and −76.7%) or for constipation (−44.4% and −63.6%), but GI bleeding cases were still significantly lower in number relative to the baseline. During the slack period, the number of ED visits for all three diagnoses rebounded but did not exceed the baseline. Our study revealed that there was a significant decline of GI complaint during the pandemic. This phenomenon was more prominent in nonemergency complaints (AGE and constipation) and less prominent in serious complaints (GI bleeding).

Keywords: acute gastroenteritis; COVID-19; constipation; emergency department; gastro-intestinal bleeding (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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