Abstract
INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a great impact on the behavior of individuals and the organization of health systems. This study analyzed the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on public hospitalizations for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in a large city in Brazil, Belo Horizonte, MG, with approximately 2.5 million inhabitants. METHODS: In a time-series analysis, this study used administrative data from the national “Hospital Information System” from 2010 to February 2020 to estimate the expected number of hospitalizations for CVD by month during the COVID-19 pandemic in Belo Horizonte in 2020 using the Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average model. For CVD, this study compared the expected number of hospital admissions, intensive care use, deaths during hospitalization, and mean length of stay with the observed number during the period. RESULTS: There were 6,517 hospitalizations for CVD from March to December 2020, a decrease of 16.3% (95% CI: 4.7-25.3) compared to the projected. The number of intensive care hospitalizations for CVD fell 24.1% (95% CI 13-32.7). The number of deaths also decreased (17.4% [80% CI: 0 - 0.30]), along with the reduction in hospitalizations, as did the length of stay for CVD hospitalizations. These reductions, however, were not significant. CONCLUSIONS: Hospitalizations for CVD were 16.3% lower than expected in a large Brazilian city, possibly due to the fear of getting infected or going to hospitals. Public campaigns informing how to proceed in case of CVD show that prompt urgent attention is essential to mitigate the indirect effects of the pandemic on CVD.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a great impact on the behavior of individuals and the organization of health systems
The present study aims to analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospital admissions for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in a large city from a middle-income country (Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Southeast Brazil) in 2020
CVD hospitalizations were reduced in 16.3% in the pandemic period of 2020, compared to what was expected for the period
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a great impact on the behavior of individuals and the organization of health systems. This study analyzed the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on public hospitalizations for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in a large city in Brazil, Belo Horizonte, MG, with approximately 2.5 million inhabitants. For CVD, this study compared the expected number of hospital admissions, intensive care use, deaths during hospitalization, and mean length of stay with the observed number during the period. The number of deaths decreased (17.4% [80% CI: 0 - 0.30]), along with the reduction in hospitalizations, as did the length of stay for CVD hospitalizations. Given the known deleterious effects of COVID-19 on the cardiovascular system, it is important to analyze whether these unexpected declines occurred in other locations, as we would expect an opposite trend, since SARS-CoV-2 leads to an www.scielo.br/rsbmt I www.rsbmt.org.br
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