Dataset Information

Communication with fertility patients during the COVID-19 pandemic- let's talk about it.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the activity of a tertiary fertility service and compare telemedicine and face-to-face meetings during this time.

Methods

This was a retrospective cohort study conducted in a university affiliated tertiary medical center. Included were patients scheduled for an appointment in the in-vitro fertilization (IVF) unit between March 18th and April 15th. A comparison was made between patients who chose telemedicine as opposed to face-to-face meetings. Additionally, the population of patients who chose to cancel their appointment was characterized. IVF cycle outcomes were additionally compared between the groups.

Results

Overall, 90 IVF clinic appointments were scheduled during the study period. Thirty-four (37.8 %) patients chose to arrive to the clinic in spite of the COVID 19 pandemic and partial quarantine, 27 (30.0 %) patients chose to avoid in person meeting and scheduled a telemedicine appointment and 29 (32.2 %) patients cancelled their appointment. On comparison between patients who chose telemedicine vs. face-to-face meeting, the telemedicine group had lower prevalence of primary infertility (20.0 % vs. 47.1 %, p = 0.037) and higher rates of preimplantation genetic testing indication for in-vitro fertilization (48.2 % vs. 20.6 %, p = 0.026). Rate of a first-ever clinic visit was higher in patients that arrived for a face-to-face meeting, as compared to telemedicine encounter (55.9 % vs. 28.0 %, respectively; p = 0.036). Patients that opted to avoid attending the clinic or meeting via telemedicine had higher rates of medical comorbidities compared to patients who chose to attend their appointment (51.7 % vs. 29.5 %, p = 0.016). Rate of appointments that led to fresh or frozen-thawed embryo transfer and these transfers' outcomes (clinical pregnancy rate) were similar in the telemedicine and face-to-face meeting groups (72.2 % vs. 88.0 % and 30.8 % vs. 31.8 %, p = 0.73 and p = 1.00; respectively).

Conclusion

Telemedicine is a valuable tool for delivering fertility care during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is need to determine which patients will benefit most from this modality.

SUBMITTER: Karavani G

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7968226 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundThe Covid-19 pandemic is characterized by uncertainty and constant change, forcing governments and health authorities to ramp up risk communication efforts. Consequently, visuality and social media platforms like Twitter have come to play a vital role in disseminating prevention messages widely. Yet to date, only little is known about what characterizes visual risk communication during the Covid-19 pandemic. To address this gap in the literature, this study's objective was to determine how visual risk communication was used on Twitter to promote the World Health Organisations (WHO) recommended preventative behaviours and how this communication changed over time.MethodsWe sourced Twitter's 500 most retweeted Covid-19 messages for each month from January-October 2020 using Crowdbreaks. For inclusion, tweets had to have visuals, be in English, come from verified accounts, and contain one of the keywords 'covid19', 'coronavirus', 'corona', or 'covid'. Following a retrospective approach, we then performed a qualitative content analysis of the 616 tweets meeting inclusion criteria.ResultsOur results show communication dynamics changed over the course of the pandemic. At the start, most retweeted preventative messages came from the media and health and government institutions, but overall, personal accounts with many followers (51.3%) predominated, and their tweets had the highest spread (10.0%, i.e., retweet count divided by followers). Messages used mostly photographs and images were found to be rich with information. 78.1% of Tweets contained 1-2 preventative messages, whereby 'stay home' and 'wear a mask' frequented most. Although more tweets used health loss framing, health gain messages spread more.ConclusionOur findings can inform the didactics of future crisis communication. The results underscore the value of engaging individuals, particularly influencers, as advocates to spread health risk messages and promote solidarity. Further, our findings on the visual characteristic of the most retweeted tweets highlight factors that health and government organisations should consider when creating visual health messages for Twitter. However, that more tweets used the emotive medium of photographs often combined with health loss framing raises concerns about persuasive tactics. More research is needed to understand the implications of framing and its impact on public perceptions and behaviours.