3.1.3 Changes in Treatment Compliance and Hospital Visits
The pandemic has repelled patients from attending many healthcare settings, especially visits for routine or minor care.34 Patients also delayed admissions to hospitals even for major incidents, such as seizures and diabetic ketoacidosis, risking the development of worse outcomes than those of COVID-19.35 Hospital visits were further reduced by policies for avoidance of physical appointments and encouragement of remote consultations when appropriate.36 On the other hand, the pandemic may have increased chronic respiratory patients’ concerns for keeping their disease under control, thus increasing their compliance to treatment. In this context, a study assessed the compliance of 297 asthmatic children using parental questionnaires, and demonstrated a relative increase in compliance to spacer and medication use in 65% of the children during the pandemic.37Similarly, another report in 1054 asthmatic children from different areas of the world showed a general improvement in treatment compliance during the pandemic.36