Although fewer patients visited the emergency department for gastrointestinal bleeding during the pandemic, cases were more severe and disproportionately worse among underrepresented groups, according to a study.
“As was seen in many other conditions, the early pandemic health care shutdown was associated with a concerning, probably nonbiological decrease in presentation of acute, non-COVID illness to hospital,” Michael K. Dougherty, MD, MSCR, study author and adjunct assistant professor of gastroenterology and hepatology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, told Healio. “This suggests that people who may have benefitted from health services were not seeking care for some pandemic-related reason (lack of access, fear, etc.).”