Risser C, Tran Ba Loc P, Binder-Foucard F, Fabacher T, Lefèvre H, Sauvage C, Sauleau EA, Wolff V. COVID-19 Impact on Stroke Admissions during France's First Epidemic Peak: An Exhaustive, Nationwide, Observational Study.
Cerebrovasc Dis 2022;
51:663-669. [PMID:
35358979 PMCID:
PMC9058998 DOI:
10.1159/000523685]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2021] [Accepted: 02/13/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Introduction
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to have great impacts on the care of non-COVID-19 patients. This was especially true during the first epidemic peak in France, which coincided with the national lockdown. The aim of this study was to identify whether a decrease in stroke admissions occurred in spring 2020, by analyzing the evolution of all stroke admissions in France from January 2019 to June 2020.
Methods
We conducted a nationwide cohort study using the French national database of hospital admissions (Information Systems Medicalization Program) to extract exhaustive data on all hospitalizations in France with at least one stroke diagnosis between January 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020. The primary endpoint was the difference in the slope gradients of stroke hospitalizations between pre-epidemic, epidemic peak, and post-epidemic peak phases. Modeling was carried out using Bayesian techniques.
Results
Stroke hospitalizations dropped from March 10, 2020 (slope gradient: −11.70), and began to rise again from March 22 (slope gradient: 2.090) to May 7. In total, there were 23,873 stroke admissions during the period March–April 2020, compared to 29,263 at the same period in 2019, representing a decrease of 18.42%. The percentage change was −15.63%, −25.19%, −18.62% for ischemic strokes, transient ischemic attacks, and hemorrhagic strokes, respectively.
Discussion/Conclusion
Stroke hospitalizations in France experienced a decline during the first lockdown period, which cannot be explained by a sudden change in stroke incidence. This decline is therefore likely to be a direct, or indirect, result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Collapse