Sexually transmitted infections, the epidemic that persists after the COVID-19 pandemic: an analysis of the primary care electronic health records covering about 5 million people in Catalonia.

BACKGROUND: The aim of our study is to analyse the trends in the diagnosis of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: We conducted an observational retrospective population-based study using data from primary care electronic health records spanning from January 2016 to December 2022 (involving 5.1 million people older than 14 years). We described the daily number of new STI diagnoses from 2016 to 2022; as well as the monthly accumulation of new STI diagnoses for each year. We compared the monthly averages of new diagnoses in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 using the T-test. Finally, we performed a segmented regression analysis of the daily number of STI diagnoses. RESULTS: We analysed 200,676 new STI diagnoses. The number of diagnoses abruptly decreased coinciding with the lockdown. Overall in 2020, we observed a reduction of 15%, with higher reductions for specific STIs such as gonorrhoea (-21%), chlamydia (-24%), and HIV (-31%) compared to 2019. Following this drastic drop, which was temporarily associated with the lockdown, we observed a rapid rebound. In 2021, the number of STI diagnoses was similar to that of 2019. Notably, we found a considerable increase in 2022, particularly for non-specific STI, which lack laboratory confirmation (67% increase). HIV was the only STI with a reduction of up to -38% in diagnoses at the end of 2022 compared to 2019. CONCLUSIONS: After a significant reduction in 2020, the number of STIs recorded in primary care rapidly rebounded, and the current trend is similar to that of 2019, except for HIV. These findings underscore the dynamic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on STI diagnoses and highlight the importance of ongoing monitoring and public health interventions in the post-pandemic period.

Primary care in the time of COVID-19: monitoring the effect of the pandemic and the lockdown measures on 34 quality of care indicators calculated for 288 primary care practices covering about 6 million people in Catalonia.

BACKGROUND: To analyse the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic and the lockdown measures on the follow-up and control of chronic diseases in primary care. METHODS: Retrospective study in 288 primary care practices (PCP) of the Catalan Institute of Health. We analysed the results of 34 indicators of the Healthcare quality standard (EQA), comprising different types: treatment (4), follow-up (5), control (10), screening (7), vaccinations (4) and quaternary prevention (4). For each PCP, we calculated each indicator's percentage of change in February, March and April 2020 respective to the results of the previous month; and used the T-Student test for paired data to compare them with the percentage of change in the same month of the previous year. We defined indicators with a negative effect those with a greater negative change or a lesser positive change in 2020 in comparison to 2019; and indicators with a positive effect those with a greater positive change or a lesser negative change. RESULTS: We observed a negative effect on 85% of the EQA indicators in March and 68% in April. 90% of the control indicators had a negative effect, highlighting the control of LDL cholesterol with a reduction of - 2.69% (95%CI - 3.17% to - 2.23%) in March and - 3.41% (95%CI - 3.82% to - 3.01%) in April; and the control of blood pressure with a reduction of - 2.13% (95%CI - 2.34% to - 1.9%) and - 2.59% (95%CI - 2.8% to - 2.37%). The indicators with the greatest negative effect were those of screening, such as the indicator of diabetic foot screening with a negative effect of - 2.86% (95%CI - 3.33% to - 2.39%) and - 4.13% (95%CI - 4.55% to - 3.71%) in March and April, respectively. Only one vaccination indicator, adult Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccine, had a negative effect in both months. Finally, among the indicators of quaternary prevention, we observed negative effects in March and April although in that case a lower inadequacy that means better clinical outcome. CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 epidemic and the lockdown measures have significantly reduced the results of the follow-up, control, screening and vaccination indicators for patients in primary care. On the other hand, the indicators for quaternary prevention have been strengthened and their results have improved.