COVID-19 advice may have reduced heart attack risks – University of Leeds

A new study suggests that COVID-19 guidance in Sweden may have reduced peoples risks of having a heart attack.

By usinganonymouslocation data from mobilephones, researchers - which included Professor Chris Gale, Co-Director at the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics - developed an aggregate picture of the activities ofthe Swedish populationand mappeditagainstattendances at Sweden's 29emergencycardiac angiography units.

Cardiac angiographyisusedto treat blockagesto thehearts bloodvessels that cause a heart attack.

Decreased stress and exertion-induced acute cardiac syndrome... can possibly explain the decline in incidence of myocardial infarction (heart attack).

Onthosedayswhen thelocation datarevealed people were stayingclose to home, theproportionofpatientsgoing tohospital for emergency heart treatmentdroppedfrom an average of63 patientsa day pre-COVID toan average of55 patientsa dayduring the first waveof the pandemic from1March to 7 May2020.

Atitslowestpoint,in the early part of April,the dropin patients was38 percent.

In comparison, whenthe location data showed people were activeatwork orweregoing shopping or being physically active,theproportionatenumber of attendancesat the heart units rose.

Professor Gale, who is also the Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at Leeds, said:This was a statisticalanalysisso cause-and-effect cannot be directly determined,but ithas identified a number ofinterestingassociations.

Although Sweden was not locked down, peopleaged 70 or over were urged to stay at home and that could have reduced exposure to some of the events thatare known to trigger a heart attacksuch as stress, intense physical activity, air pollutionand exposure to some viruses.

The study-The effects of movement trends on acute coronarysyndromeduring the COVID-19 pandemic, publishedin theJournal of Internal Medicine - is one of the firstscientific investigationsto use aggregated mobility data from map services from mobiledevicestohelp explain how COVID-19and the health messages aroundthe virus may have affected peoples health.

A baseline measure was set for the location activity data based on daily averages from pre-COVID times. Variation from that baseline was measuredas a percentage increase or decrease. The following associations were observed with the Google location dataand the statistics from the angiography clinics:

Theanalysis using Apple dataproduced comparable results.

The researchers say thedecline in people attending hospital with a heart attackwas seeninother countries including the UK,where 2,000-plus excess deaths in England and Wales have been linked to people experiencing a heart attack and not seeking emergency medical treatmentout of fear of contracting COVID-19 or because they did not want to overwhelm hard-pressedNHSservices.

But the researchers say there is no evidence in Sweden that there were bed shortages, higher mortality from heart disease or changes in quality of care in hospitals - factors which might have suggested people were becoming ill but had decided not toseek emergency help.

They said in thepaper:Self-isolation, working from home, and less rigorous recreational activities may have decreased stress and exertion-induced acute cardiac syndrome in individuals at risk and can possibly explain the decline in incidence of myocardial infarction (heart attack) as the association between psychological stress and physical exertion and incidence of myocardial infarction/ACS is well established.

The researchers say that messaging about hand hygiene and social distancing has reduced the spread of other respiratory conditions such asflu which could also triggerheart problems.

DrMoman Mohammad, from Lund University, Sweden, who led the study,said: The results give a firstinsight into how data from mobile devicesmay provide a rapid measure of how the behaviour of a population mightchangeand how that can influencethe spread of disease and possibly,enableusto predictthe level offuturehospitalisations.

We know that a stroke can be triggered by the sameevents that trigger a heart attack. During the first wave of the pandemic, there isevidencethat the number of people experiencing a stroke also declined.

Top picture: Pixabay.

For further information, please contact David Lewis in the University press office:d.lewis@leeds.ac.uk

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COVID-19 advice may have reduced heart attack risks - University of Leeds