TY - JOUR T1 - Patient experience of residents with restricted primary care access during the COVID-19 pandemic JF - Family Medicine and Community Health JO - Fam Med Com Health DO - 10.1136/fmch-2022-001667 VL - 10 IS - 2 SP - e001667 AU - Takuya Aoki AU - Yasuki Fujinuma AU - Masato Matsushima Y1 - 2022/06/01 UR - http://fmch.bmj.com/content/10/2/e001667.abstract N2 - Objectives To evaluate primary care access for COVID-19 consultation among residents who have a usual source of care (USC) and to examine their associations with patient experience during the pandemic in Japan.Design Nationwide cross-sectional study.Setting Japanese general adult population.Participants 1004 adult residents who have a USC.Main outcome measures Patient experience assessed by the Japanese version of Primary Care Assessment Tool Short Form (JPCAT-SF).Results A total of 198 (19.7%) reported restricted primary care access for COVID-19 consultation despite having a USC. After adjustment for possible confounders, restricted primary care access for COVID-19 consultation was negatively associated with the JPCAT-SF total score (adjusted mean difference = −8.61, 95% CI −11.11 to −6.10). In addition, restricted primary care access was significantly associated with a decrease in all JPCAT-SF domain scores.Conclusions Approximately one-fifth of adult residents who had a USC reported restricted primary care access for COVID-19 consultation during the pandemic in Japan. Our study also found that restricted primary care access for COVID-19 consultation was negatively associated with a wide range of patient experience including first contact. Material, financial and educational support to primary care facilities, the spread of telemedicine and the application of a patient registration system might be necessary to improve access to primary care during a pandemic.No data are available. Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data are not available. ER -