Publication date: May 29, 2026
COVID-19 significantly disrupted health care services. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of appointment deferment during pandemic on patient outcomes. This was a retrospective cohort study where we traced the clinical parameters for patients where their appointment being scheduled to 6 months later. A total of 577 patients were included, mean age was 67. 0 years (+/-11. 8). Patients (7. 8%, n = 45) made unscheduled visits, hospitalizations (3. 1%, n = 18) while (0. 5%, n = 3) deceased. Low-density lipoprotein and estimated glomerular filtration rate showed slightly improved post deferment but might not be clinically significant. Further sub-analyses found that patients with hypertension and heart diseases had nearly twice the odd of having poorer outcome (adjusted odds ratio: 1. 991, 95% CI [1. 023, 3. 876], P = .043). Understanding these patterns would help identify patient groups at higher risk of poor outcomes and inform future strategies for triaging and managing care during public health emergencies.
| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Asia | appointment deferment |
| Covid | chronic disease management |
| Future | COVID-19 |
| Hospitalizations | health care utilization |
| Pandemic |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| disease | MESH | COVID-19 Pandemic |
| disease | MESH | included |
| disease | MESH | hypertension |
| disease | MESH | heart diseases |
| disease | MESH | emergencies |
| disease | MESH | chronic disease |