Abstract
AbstractCommunity-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) represents one of the first causes of hospitalization and death in the elderly all over the world and weighs heavily on public health system. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 (CoronaVirus Disease-19) pandemic, everybody’s behavior was forced to change, as the result of a global lockdown strategy and the obligation of using personal protection equipment (PPE). We aimed to evaluate how the mitigation strategies adopted to fight SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Coronavirus Syndrome 2) infection have influenced hospitalizations due to CAP in two different Local Health Boards (LHBs) of central Italy. We considered two main periods of observation: before and after the national start of lockdown, in two Abruzzo’s LHBs. We analyzed 19,558 hospital discharge records of bacterial and viral CAP. Excluding SARS-CoV2 infection, a significant decrease in CAP hospitalizations was observed. Through the analysis of Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) values, we highlighted a significant saving of founds for the Regional Health Service. The enactment of social distancing measures to contain COVID-19 spread, brought down admissions for bacterial and viral pneumonia. Our study emphasizes that costs for hospitalizations due to CAP could be drastically reduced by mask wearing and social distancing.
Funder
Università degli Studi dell’Aquila
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
Emergency Medicine,Internal Medicine
Reference37 articles.
1. Heron M (2016) Deaths: leading causes for 2014. Natl Vital Stat Rep: Cent Dis Control Prev, Natl Center Health Stat, Natl Vital Stat Syst 65(5):1–96
2. WHO (2021) Leading causes of death and disability 2000-2019: a visual summary. https://www.who.int/data/stories/leading-causes-of-death-and-disability-2000-2019-a-visual-summary.
3. Rudan I, Boschi-Pinto C, Biloglav Z, Mulholland K, Campbell H (2008) Epidemiology and etiology of childhood pneumonia. Bull World Health Organ 86(5):408–416. https://doi.org/10.2471/blt.07.048769
4. Marrie TJ, File TM Jr (2016) Bacterial pneumonia in older adults. Clin Geriatr Med 32(3):459–477. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cger.2016.02.012
5. Lim WS, Baudouin SV, George RC, Hill AT, Jamieson C, Le Jeune I, Macfarlane JT, Read RC, Roberts HJ, Levy ML, Wani M, Woodhead MA, Pneumonia Guidelines Committee of the BTS Standards of Care Committee (2009) BTS guidelines for the management of community acquired pneumonia in adults: update 2009. Thorax 64(Suppl 3):iii1–iii55. https://doi.org/10.1136/thx.2009.121434