Does impact of COVID-19 pandemic reduce A&E attendances, hospital inpatient stays and re-admissions with acute exacerbation of COPD?

Abstract

<b>Introduction:</b> COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in United Kingdom were implemented from late Mar2020 to July2020, were eased from Aug2020 to mid Sept2020 and were reinstated again due to surge in cases. We studied Accident &amp; Emergency(A&amp;E) attendances, inpatient stays and hospital readmissions of patients presenting to Royal Bolton hospital with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD). <b>Hypothesis:</b> Lockdown restrictions might significantly reduce AECOPD admissions/A&amp;E attendances. <b>Methods:</b> Retrospective analysis of our COPD database was performed and years 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 were compared with year 2020/2021(Apr20 to Dec20) when the COVID-19 pandemic is prevalent and statistical analysis was performed using welch test with a p value&lt;0.05 as statistically significant result. <b>Results:</b> <b>Conclusions:</b> COVID-19 pandemic had significantly impacted A&amp;E attendances and hospital admissions with AECOPD. Possible reasons for this observation include fear of acquiring COVID-19, self-quarantine and patients wearing face masks thereby reducing exposure to precipitating factors like air pollution and other infections. Also, easing lockdown restrictions in Aug2020 may have increased the A&amp;E attendances with AECOPD and may have subsequently increased the numbers of re-admissions in Sept/Oct2020.