Preventive health of people over 50 years of age, most affected during Covid-19

The provision of preventive health care to people aged 50 years and over suffered the most during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic that occurred in 2020, a study from the University of Coimbra (California) showed.

The study was conducted by a team of researchers from the Center for Research in Economics and Management and teachers from the Faculty of Economics, who analyzed data from 123 thousand people aged 50 years and over from 28 countries (from the European Union, excluding Ireland, including Switzerland and Israel).

The research team, including Carlota Quintal, Michaela Antunes, Luis Moura Ramos and Oscar Lourenço, presents the relationship between unmet health care needs during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020 and reported cancer diagnoses in 2021.

By examining the impact of unmet health needs (NNS) in 2020 on people’s health in 2021, the study draws attention to how pandemic crises can impact health systems, particularly the diagnosis of serious diseases.

According to the research team, “In the specific case of the Covid-19 pandemic, NNS levels in 2020 reached unprecedented levels.”

“In addition to the fear of SARS-CoV-2 infection that kept people away from health care services, these services also canceled numerous elective health services.”

The team analyzed three causes of SUDs, namely: “routine doctor visits that were postponed (the most common reason: 25% to 12% of people reported at least one situation between 2020 and 2021, respectively),” “data seek medical attention due to fear of Covid-19″ and “an unanswered request for an appointment.”

The study “suggests not that NNS led to cancer, but that people stopped getting tests in 2020 that were ultimately relevant, and that they may have had a late diagnosis.”

However, “the results show that health systems do not withhold care from those who pose a greater risk to their lives,” the researchers said.

“We found a negative association between NNS and mortality, which appears to indicate that health systems were prioritizing more severely ill patients, demonstrating the ability to identify people who were at greater risk to their lives and give them priority access even in adverse conditions.” and unprecedented circumstances. context,” they explained.

And, according to the analysis, “in 2021, the odds of receiving a new cancer diagnosis are higher among individuals who had their care canceled, denied, or missed an appointment or test due to fear in 2020.”

The researchers explained that this study “does not suggest that these consultations or screenings could have prevented a cancer diagnosis, but rather that if these people had not experienced unmet health care needs in 2020, they might have received their diagnosis earlier “

“In the case of cancer, time is critical for associated morbidity and mortality,” they emphasized.

As for Portugal, data from another study conducted by the same research group shows that 60% of those surveyed “had at least one NNS, with the most common reason being its withdrawal by health services.”

“Taking into account the magnitude of the NNS phenomenon in Portugal during the first wave of the pandemic, the reported results should be of concern as they lead us to believe that we had cases of late cancer diagnosis,” the researchers warned.

In this context, they considered that “the lesson for the future is the need to better balance the attention paid to patients affected by the pandemic and others.”

“And regarding the latter, don’t neglect preventative care, which can have a greater impact on your health.”