Spikes in cardiovascular deaths shown to be an indirect cost of COVID-19 pandemic

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-01/bidm-sic010721.php

 

News Release 11-Jan-2021
The increase in deaths occurred in states that were hit earliest by the pandemic -- with the exception of Massachusetts
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

 

As the number of COVID-19 infections continues to rise nationwide, more than 360,000 Americans have already died from the potentially deadly viral infection. But recent reports describe an increase in mortality during the pandemic that cannot be explained by COVID-19 deaths alone.

In a new study from the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), researchers analyzed data from the National Center for Health Statistics to compare the rate of cardiovascular-related deaths before and after the onset of the pandemic in the United States, relative to the same periods in the prior year. The observational study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), found that cardiovascular deaths unrelated to COVID-19 increased during the pandemic.

"Hospital visits for heart attacks and other cardiac conditions declined markedly during the pandemic, fueling physicians' concerns that people with acute conditions may be staying at home due to fear of exposure to COVID-19," said the study's corresponding author, Rishi K. Wadhera, MD, MPP, MPhil, a cardiologist and researcher at the Smith Center and BIDMC. "Our research raises concern that the avoidance of hospitals, deferral of semi-elective procedures and care, and substantial strain imposed on hospitals during the early phase of the pandemic may have had an indirect toll on patients with cardiovascular disease."

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