COVID-19 caused CVD deaths in the U.S. to spike, new research confirms
How did the start of the COVID-19 pandemic impact cardiovascular health in the United States? New data from the American Heart Association (AHA), published Jan. 25 in Circulation, suggests it resulted in a significant increase in the number of patients dying from cardiovascular disease (CVD) and a higher age-adjusted mortality rate.[1]
Researchers explored updated Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics from the AHA, noting that the number of CVD-related deaths increased from more than 874,000 in 2019 to more than 928,000 in 2020. This represented the largest single-year increase in this statistic since 2015 and a new all-time high, besting the 910,000 CVD-related deaths seen in 2003.
The team also noted that the age-adjusted mortality rate in the United States—a number that had been dropping in recent years—increased by more than 4% in 2020.
“While the total number of CVD-related deaths increased from 2019 to 2020, what may be even more telling is that our age-adjusted mortality rate increased for the first time in many years and by a fairly substantial 4.6%,” first author and writing group chair Connie W. Tsao, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and attending staff cardiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, said in a prepared statement. “The age-adjusted mortality rate takes into consideration that the total population may have more older adults from one year to another, in which case you might expect higher rates of death among older people. So even though our total number of deaths have been slowly increasing over the past decade, we have seen a decline each year in our age-adjusted rates—until 2020. I think that is very indicative of what has been going on within our country—and the world—in light of people of all ages being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially before vaccines were available to slow the spread.”
“COVID-19 has both direct and indirect impacts on cardiovascular health,” added AHA President Michelle A. Albert, MD, MPH, a professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. “As we learned, the virus is associated with new clotting and inflammation. We also know that many people who had new or existing heart disease and stroke symptoms were reluctant to seek medical care, particularly in the early days of the pandemic. This resulted in people presenting with more advanced stages of cardiovascular conditions and needing more acute or urgent treatment for what may have been manageable chronic conditions. And, sadly, appears to have cost many their lives.”
Albert also highlighted the fact that people from Asian, Black and Hispanic populations appeared to be impacted by this trend more than white populations.
“People from communities of color were among those more highly impacted, especially early on, often due to a disproportionate burden of cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension and obesity,” she said. “Additionally, there are socioeconomic considerations, as well as the ongoing impact of structural racism on multiple factors including limiting the ability to access quality healthcare.”
While it is possible that other underrepresented populations—LGBTQ people and those living in rural areas, for instance—were also impacted at an above-average rate by the pandemic, more data is still required.
“This year’s writing group made a concerted effort to gather information on specific social factors related to health risk and outcomes, including sexual orientation, gender identity, urbanization and socioeconomic position,” Tsao said in the same prepared statement. “However, the data are lacking because these communities are grossly underrepresented in clinical and epidemiological research.”
Tsao hopes this “gap in literature” can be adequately addressed in the coming years.
Read the team’s full analysis, which includes global data and a thorough examination of numerous trends, here.
Michael has more than 18 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.