{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T02:20:30Z","timestamp":1760235630503,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":23,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,15]],"date-time":"2021-09-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1631664000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Brain Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>(1) Background: The COVID-19 pandemic impacts healthcare utilization across all care settings and health conditions. The objective of this study was to determine changes in hospital admissions for neurodegenerative diseases (NDD) during the first COVID-19 wave in Germany; (2) Methods: This cross-sectional study used nationwide administrative claims data covering 1468 hospitals. The primary outcome was the year-to-year relative change in case numbers during a four-month study period (16 January\u201315 May 2020 vs. 2019) during the first pandemic wave. Secondary outcomes included year-to-year relative changes during a four-week peak phase (16 March\u201315 April) and changes between differential phases of the wave. The analyzed NDD comprised progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), multiple system atrophy (MSA), Parkinson\u2019s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Huntington\u2019s disease; (3) Results: Hospital admissions for any reason decreased by 16.7% in 2020 during the study period and by 36.6% during the peak phase, whereas admissions for NDD decreased by 27.6% and 65.0%, respectively. PSP cases decreased during the study period (\u221234.7%) and the peak phase (\u221268.1%) and stayed reduced in a late phase with falling COVID-19 numbers. MSA and ALS cases increased strongest after the peak, with ALS cases being comparatively weakly reduced during the study period (\u221217.3%) and peak phase (\u221251.7%); (4) Conclusions: Inpatient care utilization for NDD changed differentially during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany and showed a greater reduction than overall and general neurological admissions. Mitigating long-term health deterioration of this vulnerable subgroup is important to reduce morbidity and mortality in the future.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/brainsci11091219","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,15]],"date-time":"2021-09-15T12:00:44Z","timestamp":1631707244000},"page":"1219","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Hospital Admissions for Neurodegenerative Diseases during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study from Germany"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0700-4197","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Raphael","family":"Scherbaum","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, St. Josef-Hospital, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Eun-Hae","family":"Kwon","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, St. Josef-Hospital, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6947-8350","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Daniel","family":"Richter","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, St. Josef-Hospital, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Dirk","family":"Bartig","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"DRG MARKET, D-49069 Osnabr\u00fcck, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ralf","family":"Gold","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, St. Josef-Hospital, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany"},{"name":"Neurodegeneration Research, Protein Research Unit Ruhr (PURE), Ruhr University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2965-4051","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Christos","family":"Krogias","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, St. Josef-Hospital, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6621-144X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lars","family":"T\u00f6nges","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neurology, St. Josef-Hospital, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany"},{"name":"Neurodegeneration Research, Protein Research Unit Ruhr (PURE), Ruhr University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"World Health Organization (2021, February 18). 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