The direct and indirect impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the care of patients with pituitary disease: a cross sectional study.
File(s)Graf2021_Article_TheDirectAndIndirectImpactOfTh.pdf (455.15 KB)
Published version
Author(s)
Graf, Anneke
Marcus, Hani J
Baldeweg, Stephanie E
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
PURPOSE: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is widely believed to have had a major impact on the care of patients with pituitary disease. The virus itself may directly result in death, and patients with adrenal insufficiency, often a part of hypopituitarism, are thought to represent a particularly susceptible subgroup. Moreover, even in patients that do not contract the virus, the diversion of resources by healthcare institutions to manage the virus may indirectly result in delays in their management. To this end, the aim of this study was to determine the direct and indirect impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with pituitary disease. METHODS: A cross-sectional study design was adopted, with all adult patients seen by our pituitary service in the year prior to the nationwide lockdown on March 23rd 2020 invited to participate in a telephone survey. RESULTS: In all, 412 patients (412/586; 70.3%) participated in the survey. 66 patients (66/412; 16.0%) reported having suspected COVID-19 infection. Of the 10 patients in this group tested for COVID-19 infection, three received a positive test result. No deaths due to COVID-19 were identified. 267 patients (267/412; 64.8%) experienced a delay or change in the planned care for their pituitary disease, with 100 patients (100/412; 24.3%) perceiving an impact to their care. CONCLUSIONS: Whilst only a small percentage of patients had confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infection, over half were still indirectly impacted by the pandemic through a delay or change to their planned care.
Date Issued
2020-11-24
Date Acceptance
2020-10-30
Citation
Pituitary, 2020, 24, pp.262-268
ISSN
1386-341X
Publisher
Springer
Start Page
262
End Page
268
Journal / Book Title
Pituitary
Volume
24
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2020. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source,
provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes
were made. The images or other third party material in this article are
included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated
otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in
the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not
permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will
need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a
copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source,
provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes
were made. The images or other third party material in this article are
included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated
otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in
the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not
permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will
need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a
copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33236181
PII: 10.1007/s11102-020-01106-3
Subjects
COVID-19
Direct
Impact
Indirect
Pandemic
Pituitary
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United States
Date Publish Online
2020-11-24