TY - JOUR T1 - Telephonic Follow-up and the Risk of Death in Ambulatory Patients with COVID-19 JF - The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine JO - J Am Board Fam Med DO - 10.3122/jabfm.2022.220214R1 SP - jabfm.2022.220214R1 AU - Héctor Raúl Vargas-Sánchez AU - Juan Carlos Tomás-López AU - Verónica Álvarez-Medina AU - Luisa Estela Gil-Velázquez AU - Hortensia Vega-Vega AU - Alejandro Alarcón-López AU - Rafael Pérez-Villegas AU - Claudia María Carbajal-García AU - Eugenia del Rocío Rivera-Tello AU - Manuel Cervantes-Ocampo AU - Célida Duque-Molina AU - Iván de Jesús Ascencio-Montiel Y1 - 2022/12/02 UR - http://www.jabfm.org/content/early/2022/12/01/jabfm.2022.220214R1.abstract N2 - Background: Primary care level close monitoring of mild COVID-19 patients has shown to provide a risk reduction in hospitalization and death. We aimed to compare the risk of all-cause death among COVID-19 ambulatory patients who received and did not receive telephonic follow-up in primary health care settings.Methods: A secondary database analysis, 2-group comparative study, was conducted with data from the medical information systems of the Mexican Institute of Social Security. A total of 1,498,808 ambulatory patients aged 20 years old and over and with laboratory confirmed SARS-CoV-2 by PCR or rapid antigen test were analyzed. Of them, 535,898 (35.8%) where followed by telephonic calls. The cases were attended from October 14, 2020, to April 10, 2022. Death incidence was evaluated. To assess the association between death and telephonic follow-up we calculated risk ratio using a multivariate logistic model.Results: Case fatality rate was 1.29% in the patients who received telephonic follow-up and 2.95% in the cases who did not receive phone calls. Medical history of chronic kidney disease, COPD, cardiovascular disease, tobacco consumption and diabetes were associated with increased risk of death. In the multivariate model, telephonic follow-up was associated with lower risk of all-cause death, with an adjusted risk ratio of 0.61 (95% confidence interval from 0.59, 0.64).Conclusion: Our data suggest that telephonic follow-up is associated with a risk of death reduction in adult outpatients with mild COVID-19, in the context of a multimodal strategy in the primary health care settings. ER -