Case-control study of patient characteristics, knowledge of the COVID-19 disease, risk behaviour and mental state in patients visiting an emergency room with COVID-19 symptoms in the Netherlands

Background Coronavirus disease 2019 is a serious respiratory virus pandemic. Patient characteristics, knowledge of the COVID-19 disease, risk behaviour and mental state will differ between individuals. The primary aim of this study was to investigate these variables in patients visiting an emergency department in the Netherlands during the COVID-19 pandemic and to compare the “COVID-19 suspected” (positive and negative tested group) with the “COVID-19 not suspected” (control group) and to compare in the “COVID-19 suspected” group, the positive and negative tested patients. Methods Consecutive... Mehr ...

Verfasser: van der Valk, J. P. M.
Heijboer, F. W. J.
van Middendorp, H.
Evers, A. W. M.
in ‘t Veen, J. C. C. M.
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2021
Reihe/Periodikum: PLOS ONE ; volume 16, issue 4, page e0249847 ; ISSN 1932-6203
Verlag/Hrsg.: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-29212162
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249847

Background Coronavirus disease 2019 is a serious respiratory virus pandemic. Patient characteristics, knowledge of the COVID-19 disease, risk behaviour and mental state will differ between individuals. The primary aim of this study was to investigate these variables in patients visiting an emergency department in the Netherlands during the COVID-19 pandemic and to compare the “COVID-19 suspected” (positive and negative tested group) with the “COVID-19 not suspected” (control group) and to compare in the “COVID-19 suspected” group, the positive and negative tested patients. Methods Consecutive adult patients, visiting the emergency room at the Franciscus Gasthuis & Vlietland, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, were asked to fill out questionnaires on the abovementioned items on an iPad. The patients were either “COVID-19 suspected” (positive and negative tested group) or “COVID-19 not suspected” (control group). Results This study included a total of 159 patients, 33 (21%) tested positive, 85 (53%) negative and 41 (26%) were COVID-19 not suspected (control group). All patients in this study were generally aware of transmission risks and virulence and adhered to the non-pharmaceutical interventions. Working as a health care professional was correlated to a higher risk of SARS-Cov-2 infection (p- value 0.04). COVID-19 suspected patients had a significantly higher level of anxiety compared to COVID-19 not suspected patients (p-value < 0.001). The higher the anxiety, the more seriously hygiene measures were followed. The anxiety scores of the patients with (pulmonary) comorbidities were significantly higher than without comorbidities. Conclusion This is one of the first (large) study that investigates and compares patient characteristics, knowledge, behaviour, illness perception, and mental state with respect to COVID-19 of patients visiting the emergency room, subdivided as being suspected of having COVID-19 (positive or negative tested) and a control group not suspected of having COVID-19. All patients in this ...