Background and Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic has also brought about significant changes in otologic diseases. To analyze the changes in medical treatment patterns of otologic diseases before and after COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea, we utilized the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) healthcare big data open system. Materials and Methods: From January 2018 (before the outbreak of COVID-19; 2018, 2019) to December 2021 (after COVID-19 pandemic; 2020, 2021), we analyzed data related to hearing-related diseases, otitis media-related diseases, and vestibular disorders based on diagnosis codes. This analysis assessed the frequency of medical visits, associated medical expenses, and the number of surgeries. Results: The hearing-related group showed an overall increase. Among them, sudden idiopathic hearing loss (H91.2) and tinnitus (H93.1) increased by 9.7% and 2.9%, respectively. The otitis media-related group showed a significant decrease. Acute suppurative otitis media (H660) decreased by 28%, acute serous otitis media (H650) by 25%, and chronic serous otitis media (H652) by 21%. In contrast, chronic tubotympanic suppurative otitis media (H661) showed a 5.2% increase. The vestibular disease group showed an increase. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) (H81.1) increased by 21%, Ménière's disease (H8100) by 15%, and vestibular neuronitis (H81.2) by 13%. There was a decrease in otologic surgeries. Ventilation tube insertion (S5620) decreased by 14%, tympanoplasty (S5640) by 9.3% and canal wall up mastoidectomy (S5671) by 6.7%. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has identified many disease-specific shifts in healthcare behavior. Our study of these changes may provide clues about how to respond to future pandemics.
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Kim et al. (2024) studied this question.
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