Cardiovascular Health of the Balearic Islands (Spain) After the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

[eng] Background/Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic caused healthcare managers to reallocate resources from other areas in order to handle the outbreak. Cardiovascular usual care was especially affected during the first wave. Methods: We analyzed the short- and mid-term impact of the resource reallocation on cardiovascular health, focusing on the Balearic Islands in Spain. Data from 2019 to 2021 of the regional healthcare system and from the national and regional stats center were collected in order to analyze the variations in type of admissions, main causes of cardiovascular mortality, and the correlation between the monthly variation in those causes of mortality and total cardiovascular mortality. Results: The year 2021 showed worse results in terms of healthcare outcomes compared to the pre-pandemic period, with a population-adjusted cardiovascular mortality increase of 4.8% and heart failure and hypertension being the main drivers (6.4% and 26.45%, respectively). However, this impact was not homogeneous in both pandemic years. In 2020, the main driver for the cardiovascular mortality increase was myocardial infarction (R Pearson = 0.655/p = 0.021). On the other hand, chronic conditions such as heart failure and hypertension led to the increase in cardiovascular mortality in 2021 (R Pearson = 0.671/p = 0.017 and R Pearson = 0.619/p = 0.032, respectively). In-hospital resources for COVID-19 showed a positive correlation to cardiovascular mortality in 2021; however, it did not reach statistical significance (R Pearson = 0.41/p = 0.1). Conclusions: Mid-term cardiovascular health worsened in the Spanish Balearic Island region, with hypertension and heart failure being the main drivers, with important differences in influence between 2020 and 2021. We found a correlation between COVID-19 in-hospital resource allocation and total cardiovascular mortality.