National Hospital Organization Osaka Toneyama Medical Center Reports Findings in COVID-19 (Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on outpatient care and rehabilitation in neuromuscular clinical practice in Japan: a health insurance claims database …): Coronavirus – COVID-19

2023 JUL 11 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at NewsRx COVID-19 Daily -- New research on Coronavirus - COVID-19 is the subject of a report. According to news reporting from Osaka, Japan, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “To evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on outpatient care in Japanese patients with neuromuscular diseases (NMDs). This retrospective cohort study included patients between January 2018 and February 2019; the follow-up period was divided into ‘before COVID-19’ (March 2019-February 2020) and ‘during COVID-19’ (March 2020-February 2021).”

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from National Hospital Organization Osaka Toneyama Medical Center, “JMDC claims database study. Of the 10 655 557 patients identified, we included patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA; n=82), neuromyelitis optica (NMO; n=342), myasthenia gravis (MG; n=1347), Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS; n=442) or autoimmune encephalitis/encephalopathy (AIE; n=133). Patients were required to have 1 month of data available, have a diagnosis of NMD during the enrolment period and be available for follow-up. We estimated the proportion of patients with >30% change in outpatient consultation and rehabilitation visits before versus during the COVID-19 pandemic. Small reductions in the proportion of patients with outpatient consultation/rehabilitation visits were observed before versus during the pandemic. Compared with before the pandemic, 30.4%, 27.8%, 28.7%, 49.4% and 50.0% of patients showed a>30% decrease in outpatient consultation visits and 58.6%, 75.0%, 50.0%, 76.3% and 84.6% showed a>30% decrease in outpatient rehabilitation visits during the pandemic for SMA, NMO, MG, GBS and AIE, respectively. The median change in the number of outpatient consultation visits per year before versus during pandemic was -1.0 day for all NMDs, and that in outpatient rehabilitation visits per year was -6.0, -5.5, -1.5, -6.5 and -9.0 days for SMA, NMO, MG, GBS and AIE, respectively. The reduction in outpatient rehabilitation visits was greater in the absence versus presence of a neurology specialist. Outpatient consultation and rehabilitation visits during the COVID-19 pandemic were affected in Japanese patients with NMDs.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Longer-term evaluations are required to understand if these reductions in outpatient care would affect patient prognosis.”

For more information on this research see: Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on outpatient care and rehabilitation in neuromuscular clinical practice in Japan: a health insurance claims database analysis. BMJ Open, 2023;13(6). BMJ Open can be contacted at: Bmj Publishing Group, British Med Assoc House, Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9JR, England. (BMJ Publishing Group - http://group.bmj.com/; BMJ Open - http://bmjopen.bmj.com/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Toshio Saito, Division of Child Neurology, Dept. of Neurology, National Hospital Organization Osaka Toneyama Medical Center, Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan. Additional authors for this research include Yukari Matsuo-Tezuka, Yasuo Sugitani, Takumi Tajima, Junko Fukao-Washino, Sadaoki Sakai and Masao Iwagami.

Publisher contact information for the journal BMJ Open is: Bmj Publishing Group, British Med Assoc House, Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9JR, England.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)