Journal article 62 views
Routine measurement of cardiometabolic disease risk factors in primary care in England before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic: A population-based cohort study
Frederick K. Ho 
,
Caroline Dale,
Mehrdad A. Mizani ,
Thomas Bolton ,
Ewan R. Pearson,
Jonathan Valabhji,
Christian Delles ,
Paul Welsh ,
Shinya Nakada,
Daniel Mackay,
Jill P. Pell,
Chris Tomlinson ,
Steffen E. Petersen ,
Benjamin Bray,
Mark Ashworth,
Kazem Rahimi ,
Mamas Mamas,
Julian Halcox ,
Cathie Sudlow ,
Reecha Sofat,
Naveed Sattar ,
CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT Consortium
,
Caroline Dale,
Mehrdad A. Mizani ,
Thomas Bolton ,
Ewan R. Pearson,
Jonathan Valabhji,
Christian Delles ,
Paul Welsh ,
Shinya Nakada,
Daniel Mackay,
Jill P. Pell,
Chris Tomlinson ,
Steffen E. Petersen ,
Benjamin Bray,
Mark Ashworth,
Kazem Rahimi ,
Mamas Mamas,
Julian Halcox ,
Cathie Sudlow ,
Reecha Sofat,
Naveed Sattar ,
CVD-COVID-UK/COVID-IMPACT Consortium
PLOS Medicine, Volume: 21, Issue: 11, Start page: e1004485
Swansea University Author:
Julian Halcox
Full text not available from this repository: check for access using links below.
DOI (Published version): 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004485
Abstract
Background: This study estimated to what extent the number of measurements of cardiometabolic risk factors (e.g., blood pressure, cholesterol, glycated haemoglobin) were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and whether these have recovered to expected levels. Methods and findings: A cohort of individua...
| Published in: | PLOS Medicine |
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| ISSN: | 1549-1277 1549-1676 |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PloS)
2024
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| Online Access: |
Check full text
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa68356 |
| Abstract: |
Background: This study estimated to what extent the number of measurements of cardiometabolic risk factors (e.g., blood pressure, cholesterol, glycated haemoglobin) were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and whether these have recovered to expected levels. Methods and findings: A cohort of individuals aged ≥18 years in England with records in the primary care—COVID-19 General Practice Extraction Service Data for Pandemic Planning and Research (GDPPR) were identified. Their records of 12 risk factor measurements were extracted between November 2018 and March 2024. Number of measurements per 1,000 individuals were calculated by age group, sex, ethnicity, and area deprivation quintile. The observed number of measurements were compared to a composite expectation band, derived as the union of the 95% confidence intervals of 2 estimates: (1) a projected trend based on data prior to the COVID-19 pandemic; and (2) an assumed stable trend from before pandemic. Point estimates were calculated as the mid-point of the expectation band. A cohort of 49,303,410 individuals aged ≥18 years were included. There was sharp drop in all measurements in March 2020 to February 2022, but overall recovered to the expected levels during March 2022 to February 2023 except for blood pressure, which had prolonged recovery. In March 2023 to March 2024, blood pressure measurements were below expectation by 16% (−19 per 1,000) overall, in people aged 18 to 39 (−23%; −18 per 1,000), 60 to 79 (−17%; −27 per 1,000), and ≥80 (−31%; −57 per 1,000). There was suggestion that recovery in blood pressure measurements was socioeconomically patterned. The second most deprived quintile had the highest deviation (−20%; −23 per 1,000) from expectation compared to least deprived quintile (−13%; −15 per 1,000). Conclusions: There was a substantial reduction in routine measurements of cardiometabolic risk factors following the COVID-19 pandemic, with variable recovery. The implications for missed diagnoses, worse prognosis, and health inequality are a concern. |
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| College: |
Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences |
| Funders: |
The British Heart Foundation Data Science Centre (grant no. SP/19/3/34678, awarded to Health Data Research (HDR) UK) funded co-development (with NHS England) of the Secure Data Environment service for England, provision of linked datasets, data access, user software licences, computational usage, and data management and wrangling support, with additional contributions from the HDR UK Data and Connectivity component of the UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser’s National Core Studies programme to coordinate national COVID-19 priority research. Consortium partner organisations funded the time of contributing data analysts, biostatisticians, epidemiologists, and clinicians. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. |
| Issue: |
11 |
| Start Page: |
e1004485 |