The Impact of the COVID-19 Outbreak on the Medical Treatment of Chinese Children with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) : A Multicenter Cross-section Study in the Context of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern

  1. Gaofu Zhang
  2. Haiping Yang
  3. Aihua Zhang
  4. Qian Shen
  5. Li Wang
  6. Zhijuan Li
  7. Yuhong Li
  8. Lijun Zhao
  9. Yue Du
  10. Liangzhong Sun
  11. Bo Zhao
  12. Hongtao Zhu
  13. Haidong Fu
  14. Xiaoyan Li
  15. Xiaojie Gao
  16. Sheng Hao
  17. Juanjuan Ding
  18. Zongwen Chen
  19. Zhiquan Xu
  20. Xiaorong Liu
  21. Daoqi Wu
  22. Mingsi Gao
  23. Mo Wang
  24. Qiu Li

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Abstract

Objective

To investigate the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the medical advice seeking of Chinese children with chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Materials and Methods

An anonymous online questionnaire survey was conducted in 17 pediatric nephropathy diagnosis and treatment centers in China. The questions collected basic information on the patients and their parents and data on changes in the approach to medical treatment and their needs in the context of the outbreak etc. This is a Multicenter Cross-section Study.

Results

A total of 735 valid questionnaires were collected. 555 patients (75.5%) and their parents said that the outbreak had a significant influence on their medical treatment: 264 patients (47.6%) said that it would be delayed by 2 to 4 weeks and 199 patients (35.9%) by 4 to 8 weeks. 510 patients (84.16%) hoped to get in touch with specialists through online consultation, and 528 patients (84.5%) hoped that online consultation could be implemented and that medication could be delivered to them.. A total of 458 patients (62.3%) said that their greatest concern was that the CKD would be aggravated or that they would experience a relapse; only 203 patients were infected by 2019-nCoV. A total of 313 patients (42.5%) experienced anxiety and thus required the intervention of psychologists.

Conclusion

The COVID-19 outbreak has affected the medical treatment of children with CKD. Online consultation, medication delivery and psychological counselling are the greatest needs reported by patients and their families and could especially provide solutions for the management of low income children with CKD in remote rural areas in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic.

Strengths and limitations of this study

The study is a Multicenter Cross-section Study in the Context of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

The study can well explore the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on the medical treatment of CKD children in China and the needs of current patients.

The study explored ways to meet the medical needs of CKD children in the context of a public health emergency of international concern, which provides a method support for all countries in the world experiencing COVID-19 outbreak.

The study is an exploration of the coping strategies for CKD management in China.

The limitations of this study is that it is quite simple and descriptive, and many studies need to be further carried out.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.02.28.20029199: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.02.28.20029199v1 on medRxiv