The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Non-COVID-19 Deaths: Population-Wide Retrospective Cohort Study.
Abraham Ka-Chung WaiTsz Fung YipHarris Y H WongOwen C K ChuTeddy Tai Loy LeeKen Hung On YuWang Leong SoJanet Kit Ting WongCarlos King-Ho WongJoshua Wing-Kei HoTimothy Hudson RainerPublished in: JMIR public health and surveillance (2024)
We demonstrated a statistical method to estimate hospital avoidance behavior during a pandemic and quantified the consequent excess 28-day mortality with a focus on older people, who had high frequencies of ED visits and deaths. This study serves as an informed alert and possible investigational guideline for health care professionals for hospital avoidance behavior and its consequences.