(P-160) Impact Analysis of the COVID-19 Epidemic on the Patterns of Access to Medicines of Patients with Common Chronic Diseases in Beijing

Background: Various prevention and control measures brought challenges which included the lack of medicines, etc, during the epidemic. To address the challenges, some policies were implemented in Beijing, including the long-term prescription, medicines home delivery service, the appointment system for the non-emergency care and the online medical service.

Objectives: To explore the impact of the epidemic and policies on the changes of patterns of access to medicines of patients with common chronic diseases in Beijing.

Methods: We conducted a on-site patient survey in two public tertiary hospitals and four community healthcare institutions of Beijing in the autumn of 2020 through convenience sampling to learn the changes of access to medicines of patients during the epidemic. We analyzed the associated factors with the changes of the patterns through setting up the logistic regression in which the dependent variable is “whether the patient changed the pattern of access to medicines” and the independent variables are including the demographic and social characteristics of the patients, and their experiences of quarantine (including pro-active home quarantine) and finally got the ORs.

Results: We got 123 effective questionnaires. Compared to themselves before the epidemic, 34.1% of the outpatients changed their patterns of access to medicines during the epidemic who started to go to community healthcare institutions instead, got medicines online, etc. 93.5% of the outpatients answered they had their needs of access to medicines satisfied in the questionnaires; 92% of the outpatients who had experienced quarantine or proactive home quarantine had their needs satisfied.
The previous experience of quarantine or proactive home quarantine has a positive impact on changing the patterns of access to medicines of the outpatients (OR = 6.671, 95%CI:(2.314, 19.235), P < 0.05, ). Compared with the outpatients in 18 to 50 years old, those in 51 to 70 years old were more prone to maintain the previous patterns which meant their ways of access to medicines before the epidemic (OR=0.231, 95%CI:(0.082, 0.646) P=0.005).

Conclusions: The patients' demands of medicines were generally secured through good implement of the policies and over 90% of the responded outpatients had their needs satisfied. In the next days, it is necessary to continue the policies. The experience of quarantine or proactive home quarantine contributes to changing the patterns of access to medicines. As the difference among different age groups, there is a need to consider the specific characteristics of the senior patients, and to offer them the tailor-made approach and support.