Urgent healthcare needs continued to present to hospital during lockdowns

Dr Taya Collyer is first author on a study looking at changes in
hospital attendance during the COVID-19 pandemic

While there were many anecdotal reports of reduced care-seeking behaviour during 2020 Melbourne lockdowns, analysis suggests that those with the most urgent healthcare needs continued to present to hospital. 

In a first comprehensive study of healthcare-seeking behaviour in the context of (relatively) low COVID-19 burden, team of researchers from the Academic Unit, Medicine, Peninsula Clinical School analysed data from approximately 700,000 hospital presentations to investigate the impact of restrictions to movement on hospital activity in Melbourne over two waves of community transmission (1 March to 20 September 2020).

Slowing of gait and cognitive decline together is a predictor of dementia

A landmark study of more than 16,800 older people has found that a decline in both walking speed and cognition is a strong predictor of future dementia. The authors of the study, published in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Open, suggest simple memory and walking speed testing, done in health clinics, may allow early preventive measures to be put in place to prevent the individual and global cost of diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Read the full story on the faculty news feed and see also JAMA invited commentary by Joe Verghese.