Heart failure & cardiomyopathies
Health Care Use and Outcomes in Heart Failure: Are There Lingering Impacts From the COVID-19 Pandemic?
Authors' conclusion
The declines in hospitalizations and ED visits seen during the pandemic continued post-pandemic, severity of presentation increased, and the decline in non-COVID mortality rates was consistent with pre-pandemic trends.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with heart failure (HF), March 2018 to May 2024patients per period
- Participants
- 66,782 / 77,473 / 82,072
- Exposure
- Monthly rates of mortality, hospitalizations, emergency department (ED) visits, and ambulatory care visits in patients with HF pre-pandemic, intra-pandemic, and post-pandemic
- Pre-pandemicn = 66,782reference
- Intra-pandemicn = 77,473
- Post-pandemicn = 82,072
- Outcome
- Canadian Triage Acuity Scores in patients with HF presenting to an ED or being hospitalized
Methodological detailsInterrupted time series (ITS), adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic status, comorbidity burden, seasonality, and pre-pandemic trends
- ITS
- Adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic status, comorbidity burden, seasonality, and pre-pandemic trends
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
- More severe Canadian Triage Acuity Scores during and post-pandemic than pre-pandemic (both P < 0.001)
- P < 0.001
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
| Outcome | Incidence rate ratio | |
|---|---|---|
| All-cause hospitalizations (monthly) · median follow-up 2.9 years (IQR: 1.1-5.9 years)Intra-pandemicvs pre-pandemicLower during pandemic · adjusted for covariates and pre-pandemic trends | 0.83 (95% CI 0.81–0.86) | |
| All-cause hospitalizations (monthly) · median follow-up 2.9 years (IQR: 1.1-5.9 years)Post-pandemicvs pre-pandemicLower post-pandemic · adjusted for covariates and pre-pandemic trends | 0.81 (95% CI 0.78–0.84) | |
| All-cause ED visits (monthly) · median follow-up 2.9 years (IQR: 1.1-5.9 years)Intra-pandemicvs pre-pandemicLower during pandemic · adjusted for covariates and pre-pandemic trends | 0.81 (95% CI 0.78–0.84) | |
| All-cause ED visits (monthly) · median follow-up 2.9 years (IQR: 1.1-5.9 years)Post-pandemicvs pre-pandemicLower post-pandemic · adjusted for covariates and pre-pandemic trends | 0.84 (95% CI 0.80–0.89) | |
| Non-COVID mortality ratesPost-pandemicvs pre-pandemicLower post-pandemic | 0.58 (CI 0.53–0.63) | |
| 0.512Incidence rate ratio (log scale) |
- All-cause hospitalizations (monthly): ITS P = 0.001
- All-cause ED visits (monthly): ITS P = 0.005
- Non-COVID mortality rates: ITS analysis: not a significant departure from pre-pandemic trends (P = 0.79)
Original publication
Health Care Use and Outcomes in Heart Failure: Are There Lingering Impacts From the COVID-19 Pandemic? JACC Adv. Published 10 July 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →