The correct answer is that it took 24 months for the number of prenatal visits to go back to pre-SARS levels in Taiwan.
Prior to the first reported case in 2002, the average number of visits is 9.3 per pregnancy. This number dropped by 2, or 20% less visits during the outbreak. Even after Taiwan was officially removed from WHO’s list of SARS-affected areas, the average number of prenatal visits remained low for nearly a year, and it took another year to return to the pre-SARs level.
It is no surprise that the fear of pandemic makes people avoid hospital visits. But skipping hospital visits also has far-reaching implications on various health issues such as increased risk of chronic disorders, missing opportunities to detect preventable diseases and lapse of treatment. As we are planning to reopen our daily lives and return to a new normal, we have to think about how this disruption will affect people’s health.
Editor’s note: Rob Rossi ‘87 was randomly selected as the winner from among the correct submissions. Congratulations!
Listen to the podcast "Will Confirmatory Bias Keep You From Getting the COVID-19 Vaccine?" featuring Shin-Yi Chou and Ernest Lai from the department of economics.
