Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on heart failure hospitalizations in Japan: interrupted time series analysis

Aims: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had unprecedented effects on health care utilization for acute cardiovascular diseases. Although hospitalizations for acute coronary syndrome decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a paucity of data on the trends and management of heart failure (HF) cases. Furthermore, concerns have been raised that angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) may increase susceptibility to COVID-19. This study aimed to elucidate changes in HF hospitalizations from the COVID-19 state of emergency in Japan and investigated changes in the prescription of ACEIs and ARBs, and in-hospital mortality.
Methods and results: We performed an interrupted time series analysis of HF hospitalizations in Japan to verify the impacts of the COVID-19 state of emergency. Changes in the weekly volume of HF hospitalizations were taken as the primary outcome measure. Between 1 April 2018 and 4 July 2020, 109 429 HF cases required admission. After the state of emergency, an immediate decrease was observed in HF cases per week [-3.6%; 95% confidence interval (CI): -0.3% to -6.7%, P = 0.03]. There was no significant change in the prescription of ACEIs or ARBs after the state of emergency (4.2%; 95% CI: -0.3% to 8.9%, P = 0.07). The COVID-19 pandemic had no effect on in-hospital mortality among HF patients (5.3%; 95% CI: -4.9% to 16.6%, P = 0.32).
Conclusions: We demonstrated a decline in HF hospitalizations during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, with no clear evidence of a negative effect on the prescription of ACEIs and ARBs or in-hospital mortality.