Study Shows Elevated Risk of Cardiovascular Disease and Death for at Least 18 Months After COVID Infection

January 19, 2023—The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) announced the publication of a study of approximately 160,000 patients showing that COVID-19 is associated with higher risks of cardiovascular disease and death in the short and long term. Compared to uninfected individuals, the likelihood of COVID-19 patients dying was up to 81 times higher in the first 3 weeks of infection and remained five times higher up to 18 months later.

ESC spokesperson Professor Héctor Bueno, MD, with the National Centre for Cardiovascular Research in Madrid, Spain, commented in the society’s press release, “COVID-19 has had a huge impact on patients with cardiovascular disease, who were less likely to receive optimal care during the pandemic and more likely to die from the infection. This study shows that COVID-19 also increases the risk of having cardiovascular complications and dying in the first weeks after the infection and remains high for months, suggesting that specific cardiovascular monitoring may be appropriate in these patients.”

Eric Yuk Fai Wan, PhD, et al published the findings online ahead of print in ESC’s Cardiovascular Research. The study’s senior investigator is Professor Ian C.K. Wong, PhD, with the University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong, China.

“COVID-19 patients were more likely to develop numerous cardiovascular conditions compared to uninfected participants, which may have contributed to their higher risks of death,” commented Prof. Wong in the ESC press release. “The findings indicate that patients with COVID-19 should be monitored for at least a year after recovering from the acute illness to diagnose cardiovascular complications of the infection, which form part of long COVID.”

Prof. Wong further stated, “This study was conducted during the first wave of the pandemic, and future research should evaluate subsequent outbreaks. Previous research has indicated that COVID-19 vaccination may prevent complications, and further studies are needed to investigate its effectiveness in reducing the risks of cardiovascular disease and death after COVID-19 infection in patients with COVID-19 vaccination compared to those without vaccination.”

As summarized by ESC, the study compared the occurrence of cardiovascular conditions and death in infected versus uninfected patients recruited before December 2020, when no vaccines were available in the United Kingdom. More than 7,500 patients with COVID-19 infection diagnosed from March 16, 2020, to November 30, 2020, were identified from UK Biobank, a biomedical database and research resource containing anonymized genetic, lifestyle, and health information from half a million participants in the United Kingdom.

The investigators matched each patient with up to 10 individuals without COVID-19 during the study period (March 16, 2020, to the end of follow-up on August 31, 2021) and a historical cohort before the pandemic (March 16, 2018, to November 30, 2018).

Each uninfected group had > 70,000 participants who were similar to the COVID-19 group for age, sex, smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular and other health conditions, body mass index, ethnicity, and deprivation. In all three groups, the average age was 66 years and there were approximately equal numbers of women and men.

In the ESC press release, Prof. Wong explained, “The historical control cohort was included to rule out the effect of routine health care services being reduced or canceled during the pandemic, which led to worsening health and increased mortality even in uninfected people.”

Data were obtained from medical and death records for outcomes including major cardiovascular disease (a composite of heart failure, stroke, and coronary heart disease), numerous cardiovascular conditions (stroke, atrial fibrillation, myocardial infarction), death from cardiovascular disease, and all-cause death.

Associations were evaluated for the acute phase (within 21 days of COVID-19 diagnosis) and the postacute phase (starting at 22 days after diagnosis and continuing up to 18 months). Patients with a history of a particular outcome were excluded from that analysis.

As reported in the ESC press release, the study’s key findings included the following:

• Compared with the two uninfected cohorts, patients with COVID-19 were approximately four times more likely to develop major cardiovascular disease in the acute phase and 40% more likely in the postacute phase.
• Compared to uninfected individuals, the risk of death in COVID-19 patients was up to 81-fold higher in the acute phase and five-fold higher in the postacute phase.
• Patients with severe COVID-19 were more likely to develop major cardiovascular disease or die than nonsevere cases.
• COVID-19 patients had a greater likelihood of several cardiovascular conditions compared with uninfected participants in both the short and long term, including myocardial infarction, coronary heart disease, heart failure, and deep vein thrombosis.
• Risks of some cardiovascular conditions (eg, stroke and atrial fibrillation) were elevated in COVID-19 patients in the short term but then returned to normal levels.