Article Figures & Data
Figures
- Fig 1.
Bar charts showing the total number of ED attendances, number of FA patients and number of FA visits between March to June in 2019 (control) and in 2020 (the COVID-19 period). ED = emergency department, FA = frequent attender, FA-MUS = frequent attender with medically unexplained symptoms, FA non-MUS = frequent attender with a presentation that was not MUS.
Tables
- Table 1.
A comparison of emergency department overall attendances, frequent attenders, and frequent attenders with medically unexplained symptoms between two 122-day periods in 2019 (Control) and 2020 (COVID-19)
Control COVID-19 RR (95%CI), p-value ED visits, n 42,785 28,806 ED visits per 1kpop/yr 114.4 77.0 Frequent attenders Patients, n 163 147 Patients per 1kpop/yr 1.3 1.2 0.95 (95%CI 0.90–1.01), p=0.13 ED visits, n 1185 1000 ED visits per 1kpop/yr 9.5 8.0 0.92 (95%CI 0.90–0.94), p<0.0001 Frequent attenders with medically unexplained symptoms Patients, n 44 65 Patients per 1kpop/yr 0.4 0.5 1.5 (95%CI 1.1–1.8), p=0.0006 ED visits, n 149 267 ED visits per 1kpop/yr 1.2 2.1 1.8 (95%CI 1.6–2.0), p<0.0001 ED = emergency department; RR = relative risk; 95%CI = 95% confidence interval; 1kpop/year = 1,000 population at risk per year incidence
- Table 2.
The frequency of medically unexplained symptom presenting complaint categories in frequent emergency department attenders between two 122-day time periods in 2019 (control) and 2020 (COVID-19)
MUS diagnosis Control COVID-19 p-value Non-cardiac chest pain, n (%) 72 (48.3%) 117 (43.8%) 0.41 Abdominal pain, n (%) 35 (23.5%) 56 (21.0%) 0.62 Neurological, n (%) 13 (8.7%) 33 (12.4%) 0.33 Non-epileptiform seizure, n (%) 12 (8.1%) 16 (6.0%) 0.42 Musculoskeletal, n (%) 3 (2.0%) 15 (5.6%) 0.13 Shortness of breath, n (%) 0 11 (4.1%) <0.01 Other, n 14 19 Total, n 149 267 MUS = medically unexplained symptoms
