Alta. study finds first year of pandemic saw fewer stroke patients, but more deaths

In response to the pandemic, affected countries implemented public health measures to decrease viral transmission and a consequence of these measures could be hospital avoidance by patients with medical emergencies. This University of Calgary study found that in the first wave of the pandemic in Alta., there was a decline in the number of people who were presenting with acute ischemic stroke and that the use of stroke therapies declined by about the same amount. Researchers also found that the number of patients with stroke symptoms didn’t return to pre-pandemic levels after the first wave in spring 2020. They say out-of-hospital deaths ended up rising four out of the five time periods in the pandemic and similar results were found in hospitals. The research suggests some public health messaging warned groups at high cardiovascular risk that they were at elevated risk of severe COVID-19 and physical distancing may also result in loss of services and support networks, impairing patients’ ability to seek medical assistance.