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. 2022 Mar:156:106987.
doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2022.106987. Epub 2022 Feb 9.

Forgoing healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic in Geneva, Switzerland - A cross-sectional population-based study

Lakshmi Krishna Menon  1 , Viviane Richard  2 , Carlos de Mestral  3 , Hélène Baysson  4 , Ania Wisniak  5 , Idris Guessous  6 , Silvia Stringhini  7 ; Specchio-COVID19 Study Group
Affiliations

Forgoing healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic in Geneva, Switzerland - A cross-sectional population-based study

Lakshmi Krishna Menon et al. Prev Med. 2022 Mar.

Abstract

Background: Health systems around the world continue to navigate through operational challenges surfaced by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic; these have implications for access to healthcare. In this study, we estimate the prevalence and reasons for forgoing healthcare during the pandemic in Geneva, Switzerland; a country with a universal and mandatory private health insurance coverage.

Methods: Participants from a randomly selected population-based sample of the adult population living in the Canton of Geneva completed an online socio-demographic and lifestyle questionnaire between November 2020 and January 2021. The prevalence and reasons for forgoing healthcare since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic were examined descriptively, and logistic regression models were used to assess determinants for forgoing healthcare.

Results: The study included 5397 participants, among which 8.0% reported having forgone healthcare since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic; participants with a disadvantaged financial situation (OR = 2.04; 95% CI: 1.56-2.65), and those reporting an average (OR = 2.54; 95% CI: 1.94-3.31) or poor health (OR = 4.40; 95% CI: 2.39-7.67) were more likely to forgo healthcare. The most common reasons to forgo healthcare were appointment cancellations by healthcare providers (53.9%), fear of infection (35.3%), and personal organizational issues (11.1%).

Conclusion: Our paper highlights the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to healthcare and identifies population sub-groups at-risk for forgoing healthcare. These results necessitate public health efforts to ensure equitable and accessible healthcare as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

Keywords: Access to healthcare; COVID-19 pandemic; Forgoing healthcare; Health equity.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Types of forgone healthcare among participants reporting forgoing healthcare (N = 434). Participants could select multiple choices in the questionnaires.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Reasons for forgoing healthcare among participants reporting forgoing healthcare (N = 434). Participants could select multiple choices in the questionnaires.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

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