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. 2021 Jun;36(6):619-627.
doi: 10.1007/s10654-021-00764-2. Epub 2021 Jun 6.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on myocardial infarction care

Timo Schmitz  1   2 , Christa Meisinger  3   4 , Inge Kirchberger  3   4 , Christian Thilo  5 , Ute Amann  4 , Sebastian E Baumeister  3   4   6 , Jakob Linseisen  3   4
Affiliations

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on myocardial infarction care

Timo Schmitz et al. Eur J Epidemiol. 2021 Jun.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on acute myocardial infarction (AMI) care, and to identify underlying stressors in the German model region for complete AMI registration. The analysis was based on data from the population-based KORA Myocardial Infarction Registry located in the region of Augsburg, Germany. All cases of AMI (n = 210) admitted to one of four hospitals in the city of Augsburg or the county of Augsburg from February 10th, 2020, to May 19, 2020, were included. Patients were divided into three groups, namely pre-lockdown, strict lockdown, and attenuated lockdown period. An additional survey was conducted asking the patients for stress and fears in the 4 weeks prior to their AMI. The AMI rate declined by 44% in the strict lockdown period; in the attenuated lockdown period the rate was 17% lower compared to the pre-lockdown period. The downward trend in AMI rates during lockdown was seen in STEMI and NSTEMI patients, and independent of sex and age. The door-to-device time decreased by 70-80% in the lockdown-periods. In the time prior to the infarction, patients felt stressed mainly due to fear of infection with Sars-CoV-2 and less because of the restrictions and consequences of the lockdown. A strict lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic had a marked impact on AMI care even in a non-hot-spot region with relatively few cases of COVID-19. Fear of infection with the virus is presumably the main reason for the drop in hospitalizations due to AMI.

Keywords: Augsburg; Bavaria; Covid-19; Door-to-device-time; Germany; Lockdown; Myocardial infarction; Population-based registry.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A flow chart displaying the study population and the process of data collection for the rates of hospitalized AMI´s and for the survey
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The main question of the survey was: “In the 4 weeks before your heart attack, how much did you feel stressed by the following situations, events or feelings?” (see Table 3 for the all items of this question). Figure 2 displays the percentages of given answers for each of the 4 factors that were identified by factor analysis (see Table 4): Factor 1: stress by job/finances, Factor 2: stress due to family/friends/social environment, Factor 3: stress caused by fear of infection with Sars-Cov-2, Factor 4: stressed by society/social life. Figure generated with R version 3.6.3
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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