• Rita Del Pinto, Claudio Ferri, Leondino Mammarella, Stefano Abballe, Sofia Dell'Anna, Sabrina Cicogna, Davide Grassi, Simona Sacco, and Giovambattista Desideri.
• Department of Life, Health, and Environmental Sciences, San Salvatore Hospital, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy.
• J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2020 Oct 1; 22 (10): 1932-1935.

AbstractThe province of L'Aquila (Central Italy) was marginally affected by COVID-19 pandemic, but changes in health care seeking behaviors were noticed. The authors retrospectively analyzed de-identified data concerning all-cause and cardiovascular hospitalizations, cardiovascular acute phase treatments, and in-hospital cardiovascular deaths in the province of L'Aquila from January 1 to March 31, in 2020 and 2019. Incidence rate ratios (IRR) comparing 2020 and 2019 for admissions/procedures were calculated through Poisson regression. All-cause and cardiovascular mortality in the examined time windows was also assessed. Less all-cause (IRR 0.85, P < .001) and cardiovascular (IRR 0.73, P < .001) hospitalizations occurred in 2020 than in 2019. Less daily cardiovascular procedures were also performed (IRR: 0.74, P = .009). A disproportionate decrease in the number of procedures was observed in relation to cardiovascular hospitalizations in 2020 (-5.5%, P = .001). Unlike all-cause mortality, more in-hospital cardiovascular deaths occurred in March 2020 compared with March 2019 (+6.8%, P = .048).© 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

31 keywords...

hide…