Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting
Date Submitted: Dec 16, 2020
Date Accepted: Jun 21, 2021
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Analysis of Social Determinants and the Utilization of Tele-Urgent Pediatrics Care During a Pandemic
ABSTRACT
Background:
Telehealth is increasingly used to provide specialty consultations to infants and children receiving care. However, there is uncertainty if the Covid-19 pandemic has influenced the use of telehealth among vulnerable populations.
Objective:
The objective of this research was to compare the overall use of tele-urgent care visits for pediatric before and after the pandemic especially among vulnerable populations.
Methods:
We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of Pediatric tele-urgent care visits at a Virtual Care Center at a Southeastern Health Care Center. The main outcome of this study was the utilization of Pediatrics tele-urgent visits across geographical regions with different levels of social disparities and between 2019 and 2020.
Results:
Of 584 tele-urgent care visits, 388 (66.4%) visits occurred in 2020 during the pandemic compared to 196 (33.6%) visits in 2019. Among 808 NC zip codes, 181 (22%) consisted of a high concentration of vulnerable populations, where 17.7% of the tele-urgent care visits originated from. The majority (67.8%) of tele-urgent care visits originated from zip codes with a low concentration of vulnerable populations. There was a significant association between the rate of Covid19 cases and the concentration level of social factors in a given ZCTA area.
Conclusions:
The use of tele-urgent visits for pediatric care doubled during the Covid19 pandemic. The majority of the tele-urgent care visits after Covid19 originated from regions where there is a low presence of vulnerable populations. In addition, our geospatial analysis found that geographic regions with a high concentration of vulnerable populations had a significantly higher rate of Covid19 confirmed cases and deaths compared to regions with a low concentration of vulnerable populations.
Citation
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Copyright
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