IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i24p13253-d703682.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown, during the Two Waves, on Drug Use and Emergency Department Access in People with Epilepsy: An Interrupted Time-Series Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Ippazio Cosimo Antonazzo

    (Research Centre on Public Health (CESP), University of Milan-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy)

  • Carla Fornari

    (Research Centre on Public Health (CESP), University of Milan-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy)

  • Sandy Maumus-Robert

    (Team Pharmacoepidemiology, Bordeaux Population Health Research Center, Inserm U1219, University of Bordeaux, 33000 Bordeaux, France)

  • Eleonora Cei

    (Research Centre on Public Health (CESP), University of Milan-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy)

  • Olga Paoletti

    (Epidemiology Unit, Regional Agency for Healthcare Services of Tuscany, 50141 Florence, Italy)

  • Sara Conti

    (Research Centre on Public Health (CESP), University of Milan-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy)

  • Paolo Angelo Cortesi

    (Research Centre on Public Health (CESP), University of Milan-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy
    Value-Based Healthcare Unit, IRCCS MultiMedica, 20099 Sesto San Giovanni, Italy)

  • Lorenzo Giovanni Mantovani

    (Research Centre on Public Health (CESP), University of Milan-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy
    Value-Based Healthcare Unit, IRCCS MultiMedica, 20099 Sesto San Giovanni, Italy)

  • Rosa Gini

    (Epidemiology Unit, Regional Agency for Healthcare Services of Tuscany, 50141 Florence, Italy)

  • Giampiero Mazzaglia

    (Research Centre on Public Health (CESP), University of Milan-Bicocca, 20900 Monza, Italy)

Abstract

Background: In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Italy implemented two national lockdowns aimed at reducing virus transmission. We assessed whether these lockdowns affected anti-seizure medication (ASM) use and epilepsy-related access to emergency departments (ED) in the general population. Methods: We performed a population-based study using the healthcare administrative database of Tuscany. We defined the weekly time series of prevalence and incidence of ASM, along with the incidence of epilepsy-related ED access from 1 January 2018 to 27 December 2020 in the general population. An interrupted time-series analysis was used to assess the effect of lockdowns on the observed outcomes. Results: Compared to pre-lockdown, we observed a relevant reduction of ASM incidence (0.65; 95% Confidence Intervals: 0.59–0.72) and ED access (0.72; 0.64–0.82), and a slight decrease of ASM prevalence (0.95; 0.94–0.96). During the post-lockdown the ASM incidence reported higher values compared to pre-lockdown, whereas ASM prevalence and ED access remained lower. Results also indicate a lower impact of the second lockdown for both ASM prevalence (0.97; 0.96–0.98) and incidence (0.89; 0.80–0.99). Conclusion: The lockdowns implemented during the COVID-19 outbreaks significantly affected ASM use and epilepsy-related ED access. The potential consequences of these phenomenon are still unknown, although an increased incidence of epilepsy-related symptoms after the first lockdown has been observed. These findings emphasize the need of ensuring continuous care of epileptic patients in stressful conditions such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Ippazio Cosimo Antonazzo & Carla Fornari & Sandy Maumus-Robert & Eleonora Cei & Olga Paoletti & Sara Conti & Paolo Angelo Cortesi & Lorenzo Giovanni Mantovani & Rosa Gini & Giampiero Mazzaglia, 2021. "Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown, during the Two Waves, on Drug Use and Emergency Department Access in People with Epilepsy: An Interrupted Time-Series Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-10, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:24:p:13253-:d:703682
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/24/13253/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/24/13253/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gianluca Trifirò & Rosa Gini & Francesco Barone-Adesi & Ettore Beghi & Anna Cantarutti & Annalisa Capuano & Carla Carnovale & Antonio Clavenna & Mirosa Dellagiovanna & Carmen Ferrajolo & Matteo Franch, 2019. "The Role of European Healthcare Databases for Post-Marketing Drug Effectiveness, Safety and Value Evaluation: Where Does Italy Stand?," Drug Safety, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 347-363, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sara Paltrinieri & Barbara Bressi & Elisa Mazzini & Stefania Fugazzaro & Ermanno Rondini & Paolo Giorgi Rossi & Stefania Costi, 2023. "Activities Carried Out during the First COVID-19 Lockdown by Italian Citizens," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-16, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Manuela Casula & Federica Galimberti & Marica Iommi & Elena Olmastroni & Simona Rosa & Mattia Altini & Alberico L. Catapano & Elena Tragni & Elisabetta Poluzzi, 2022. "Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Therapeutic Continuity among Outpatients with Chronic Cardiovascular Therapies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-11, September.
    2. Janet Sultana & Francesco Trotta & Antonio Addis & Jeffrey S. Brown & Miguel Gil & Francesca Menniti-Ippolito & Federica Milozzi & Samy Suissa & Gianluca Trifirò, 2020. "Healthcare Database Networks for Drug Regulatory Policies: International Workshop on the Canadian, US and Spanish Experience and Future Steps for Italy," Drug Safety, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 1-5, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:24:p:13253-:d:703682. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.