Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the diagnosis of COPD in rural hospitals 2018-2021, Colombia

The COVID-19 pandemic had a great impact on the world's health systems, both due to its direct consequences in terms of morbidity and mortality, and the regression in the approach to chronic pathologies that require continuous early detection and follow-up programs, as in the case of COPD. This research sought to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the first-time diagnosis of COPD in rural hospitals in the central-western area of Colombia during the years 2018 to 2021. A descriptive, retrospective study was carried out with an analysis of the number of COPD diagnoses for the first time in people over 40 years of age, the area of admission of the diagnosis was determined, as well as the related demographic variables. The analysis of 40,736 records was carried out from the year 2018 to 2021, from the government database. 44% were women. It is evident that the external consultation is the one that presents the highest number of attentions in all the years, surpassing the emergency room and the hospitalization area (Figure 1). COPD diagnoses during this period range from 9,249 to 12,128 per year and it can be seen that from 2020 they began to decrease. The impact that COVID-19 had on the epidemiological behavior of some of the pathologies was observed; COPD was no exception and a decrease in diagnostic notification was observed. <fig><object-id>erj;64/suppl_68/PA455/F1</object-id><object-id>F1</object-id><object-id>F1</object-id><graphic></graphic></fig>