The corona-virus disease 2019 pandemic compromised routine care for hypertension: a survey conducted among excellence centers of the European Society of Hypertension

Abstract

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic caused a shutdown of healthcare systems in many countries. We explored the impact on hypertension care in the Excellence Center (EC) network of the European Society of Hypertension.Methods: We conducted a 17-question electronic survey among ECs.Results: Overall, 52 ECs from 20 European and three non-European countries participated, providing hypertension service for a median of 1500 hypertensive patients per center per year. Eighty-five percent of the ECs reported a shutdown lasting for 9 weeks (range 0-16). The number of patients treated per week decreased by 90%: from a median of 50 (range 10-400) before the pandemic to a median of 5.0 (range 0-150) during the pandemic (P < 0.0001). 60% of patients (range 0-100%) declared limited access to medical consultations. The majority of ECs (57%) could not provide 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring, whereas a median of 63% (range 0-100%) of the patients were regularly performing home BP monitoring. In the majority (75%) of the ECs, hypertension service returned to normal after the first wave of the pandemic. In 66% of the ECs, the physicians received many questions regarding the use of renin-angiotensin system (RAS) blockers. Stopping RAS-blocker therapy (in a few patients) either by patients or physicians was reported in 27 and 36.5% of the ECs. Conclusion:Patient care in hypertension ECs was compromised during the Covid-19-related shutdown. These data highlight the necessity to develop new strategies for hypertension care including virtual clinics to maintain services during challenging times.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on blood pressure control: a nationwide home blood pressure monitoring study

“…A major novel finding of this report was that there were no significant differences in OBP and HBPM during the second semester of 2020 compared with the second semester of 2019 among either treated or untreated individuals in Cohorts 1 and 2. These data suggest that the pandemic did not have a major medium-term impact on BP control, although the patients may have experienced prolonged stress and adopted unfavorable lifestyle habits [ 1 ]. Because hypertension and worse BP control are reported to be risk factors for a worse prognosis following SARS-CoV-2 infection [ 2 , 3 , 14 ], it is also possible that the patients may have been more worried about controlling their BP, which could explain the lack of an adverse impact of the pandemic on BP control.…”

“…The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is expected to have adverse effects on the long-term incidence of cardiovascular diseases due to inadequate control of cardiovascular risk factors [ 1 ]. In particular, there are concerns that hypertension control may decrease during the pandemic due to prolonged stress and unfavorable lifestyle habits, including increased alcohol and salt intake, weight gain and sedentarism [ 1 ].…”

“…The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is expected to have adverse effects on the long-term incidence of cardiovascular diseases due to inadequate control of cardiovascular risk factors [ 1 ]. In particular, there are concerns that hypertension control may decrease during the pandemic due to prolonged stress and unfavorable lifestyle habits, including increased alcohol and salt intake, weight gain and sedentarism [ 1 ]. The lack of hypertension control might also be relevant in the context of SARS-CoV-2 infection, since worse blood pressure (BP) control has been associated with adverse outcomes among patients with COVID-19 [ 2 , 3 ].…”

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospital services for patients with cardiac diseases: a scoping review

“…Regarding outpatient activity, 18 indicators were identified from 8 articles (49,60,62,81,(116)(117)(118)(119). Most of the indicators concerned only to in-person outpatient activity.…”

“…Regarding the use of telehealth, 6 indicators were identified from 6 articles (49,62,116,117,119,120).…”