4.5 Article

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Women's Health Care Access: A Cross-Sectional Study

Journal

JOURNAL OF WOMENS HEALTH
Volume 31, Issue 12, Pages 1690-1702

Publisher

MARY ANN LIEBERT, INC
DOI: 10.1089/jwh.2022.0128

Keywords

primary care; gynecologic care; women's health; cancer prevention; cancer screening

Funding

  1. Moffitt Center for Immunization and Infection Research in Cancer Award
  2. Moffitt Merit Society Award
  3. H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute
  4. Moffitt's Cancer Center Support Grant [P30-CA076292]
  5. South Carolina Clinical and Translational Science (SCTR) Institute at the Medical University of South Carolina
  6. National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health [UL1TR001450]
  7. National Institutes of Health, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Clinical and Translational Sciences Award [P30-CA076292, UL1TR001450]
  8. [KL2TR002530]
  9. [UL1TR002529]

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The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted women's health care access and has disproportionately affected access among sexual minority women and women with a history of cancer. Factors such as income, insurance status, and having a usual source of care also influence health care access.
Background: There has been limited study of how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected women's health care access. Our study aims to examine the prevalence and correlates of COVID-19-related disruptions to (1) primary care; (2) gynecologic care; and (3) preventive health care among women.Materials and Methods: We recruited 4,000 participants from a probability-based online panel. We conducted four multinomial logistic regression models, one for each of the study outcomes: (1) primary care access; (2) gynecologic care access; (3) patient-initiated disruptions to preventive visits; and (4) provider-initiated disruptions to preventive visits.Results: The sample included 1,285 women. One in four women (28.5%) reported that the pandemic affected their primary care access. Sexual minority women (SMW) (odds ratios [OR]: 1.67; 95% confidence intervals [CI]: 1.19-2.33) had higher odds of reporting pandemic-related effects on primary care access compared to women identifying as heterosexual. Cancer survivors (OR: 2.07; 95% CI: 1.25-3.42) had higher odds of reporting pandemic-related effects on primary care access compared to women without a cancer history. About 16% of women reported that the pandemic affected their gynecologic care access. Women with a cancer history (OR: 2.34; 95% CI: 1.35-4.08) had higher odds of reporting pandemic-related effects on gynecologic care compared to women without a cancer history. SMW were more likely to report patient- and provider-initiated delays in preventive health care. Other factors that affected health care access included income, insurance status, and having a usual source of care.Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted women's health care access and disproportionately affected access among SMW and women with a cancer history, suggesting that targeted interventions may be needed to ensure adequate health care access during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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