The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Non-COVID-19 Deaths: Population-Wide Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background: Health care avoidance in the COVID-19 pandemic has been widely reported. Yet few studies have investigated the dynamics of hospital avoidance behavior during pandemic waves and inferred its impact on excess non-COVID-19 deaths.

Objective: This study aimed to measure the impact of hospital avoidance on excess non-COVID-19 deaths in public hospitals in Hong Kong.