Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jul;29(7):e99-e104.
doi: 10.1016/j.hlc.2020.04.007. Epub 2020 Apr 30.

Optimising Secondary Prevention and Cardiac Rehabilitation for Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Position Statement From the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand (CSANZ)

Stephen J Nicholls  1 , Mark Nelson  2 , Carolyn Astley  3 , Tom Briffa  4 , Alex Brown  5 , Robyn Clark  3 , David Colquhoun  6 , Robyn Gallagher  7 , David L Hare  8 , Sally Inglis  9 , Michael Jelinek  10 , Adrienne O'Neil  11 , Rosy Tirimacco  12 , Margarite Vale  13 , Julie Redfern  7
Affiliations

Optimising Secondary Prevention and Cardiac Rehabilitation for Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Position Statement From the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand (CSANZ)

Stephen J Nicholls et al. Heart Lung Circ. 2020 Jul.

Abstract

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has introduced a major disruption to the delivery of routine health care across the world. This provides challenges for the use of secondary prevention measures in patients with established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD). The aim of this Position Statement is to review the implications for effective delivery of secondary prevention strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Challenges: The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced limitations for many patients to access standard health services such as visits to health care professionals, medications, imaging and blood tests as well as attendance at cardiac rehabilitation. In addition, the pandemic is having an impact on lifestyle habits and mental health. Taken together, this has the potential to adversely impact the ability of practitioners and patients to adhere to treatment guidelines for the prevention of recurrent cardiovascular events.

Recommendations: Every effort should be made to deliver safe, ongoing access to health care professionals and the use of evidenced based therapies in individuals with CVD. An increase in use of a range of electronic health platforms has the potential to transform secondary prevention. Integrating research programs that evaluate the utility of these approaches may provide important insights into how to develop more optimal approaches to secondary prevention beyond the pandemic.

Keywords: Atherosclerosis; COVID-19; Cardiac rehabilitation; Cardiovascular disease; Secondary prevention; Telehealth.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. World Health Organization . 2020. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation report - 85.
    1. Driggin E., Madhavan M.V., Bikdeli B., Chuich T., Laracy J., Bondi-Zoccai G., et al. Cardiovascular considerations for patients, health care workers, and health systems during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. J Am Coll Cardiol. March 2020 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Available from: https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus. Accessed April 15, 2020.
    1. Available from: https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/drastic-drops-in-cancer-and-he.... Accessed April 15, 2020.
    1. Briffa T.G., Nedkoff L.J., Knuiman M.W., Hankey G.J., Norman P.E., Hung J., et al. Cross vascular risk for first and recurrent hospitalised atherothrombosis determined retrospectively from linked data. BMJ Open. 2013;3:e003813. - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms