tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
BMC Infect Dis
. 2021 Mar 20;21(1):283.
doi: 10.1186/s12879-021-05985-0.
Divergences on expected pneumonia cases during the COVID-19 epidemic in Catalonia: a time-series analysis of primary care electronic health records covering about 6 million people
Ermengol Coma[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Leonardo M?ndez-Boo[SUP] 2 [/SUP], N?ria Mora[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Carolina Guiriguet[SUP] 2 3 [/SUP], M?ncia Ben?tez[SUP] 2 3 [/SUP], Francesc Fina[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Mireia F?bregas[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Elisabet Ball?[SUP] 2 4 [/SUP], Francisa Ramos[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Manuel Medina[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Josep M Argimon[SUP] 5 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Abstract
Background: Pneumonia is one of the complications of COVID-19. Primary care electronic health records (EHR) have shown the utility as a surveillance system. We therefore analyse the trends of pneumonia during two waves of COVID-19 pandemic in order to use it as a clinical surveillance system and an early indicator of severity.
Methods: Time series analysis of pneumonia cases, from January 2014 to December 2020. We collected pneumonia diagnoses from primary care EHR, a software system covering > 6 million people in Catalonia (Spain). We compared the trend of pneumonia in the season 2019-2020 with that in the previous years. We estimated the expected pneumonia cases with data from 2014 to 2018 using a time series regression adjusted by seasonality and influenza epidemics.
Results: Between 4 March and 5 May 2020, 11,704 excess pneumonia cases (95% CI: 9909 to 13,498) were identified. Previously, we identified an excess from January to March 2020 in the population older than 15 years of 20%. We observed another excess pneumonia period from 22 october to 15 november of 1377 excess cases (95% CI: 665 to 2089). In contrast, we observed two great periods with reductions of pneumonia cases in children, accounting for 131 days and 3534 less pneumonia cases (95% CI, 1005 to 6064) from March to July; and 54 days and 1960 less pneumonia cases (95% CI 917 to 3002) from October to December.
Conclusions: Diagnoses of pneumonia from the EHR could be used as an early and low cost surveillance system to monitor the spread of COVID-19.
Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus; Electronic health records; Pneumonia;public health surveillance; Primary care.
. 2021 Mar 20;21(1):283.
doi: 10.1186/s12879-021-05985-0.
Divergences on expected pneumonia cases during the COVID-19 epidemic in Catalonia: a time-series analysis of primary care electronic health records covering about 6 million people
Ermengol Coma[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Leonardo M?ndez-Boo[SUP] 2 [/SUP], N?ria Mora[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Carolina Guiriguet[SUP] 2 3 [/SUP], M?ncia Ben?tez[SUP] 2 3 [/SUP], Francesc Fina[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Mireia F?bregas[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Elisabet Ball?[SUP] 2 4 [/SUP], Francisa Ramos[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Manuel Medina[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Josep M Argimon[SUP] 5 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 33740907
- DOI: 10.1186/s12879-021-05985-0
Abstract
Background: Pneumonia is one of the complications of COVID-19. Primary care electronic health records (EHR) have shown the utility as a surveillance system. We therefore analyse the trends of pneumonia during two waves of COVID-19 pandemic in order to use it as a clinical surveillance system and an early indicator of severity.
Methods: Time series analysis of pneumonia cases, from January 2014 to December 2020. We collected pneumonia diagnoses from primary care EHR, a software system covering > 6 million people in Catalonia (Spain). We compared the trend of pneumonia in the season 2019-2020 with that in the previous years. We estimated the expected pneumonia cases with data from 2014 to 2018 using a time series regression adjusted by seasonality and influenza epidemics.
Results: Between 4 March and 5 May 2020, 11,704 excess pneumonia cases (95% CI: 9909 to 13,498) were identified. Previously, we identified an excess from January to March 2020 in the population older than 15 years of 20%. We observed another excess pneumonia period from 22 october to 15 november of 1377 excess cases (95% CI: 665 to 2089). In contrast, we observed two great periods with reductions of pneumonia cases in children, accounting for 131 days and 3534 less pneumonia cases (95% CI, 1005 to 6064) from March to July; and 54 days and 1960 less pneumonia cases (95% CI 917 to 3002) from October to December.
Conclusions: Diagnoses of pneumonia from the EHR could be used as an early and low cost surveillance system to monitor the spread of COVID-19.
Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus; Electronic health records; Pneumonia;public health surveillance; Primary care.