Understanding myocardial infarction trends during the early COVID-19 pandemic: an infodemiology study

Omar Dzaye; Matthias Duebgen; Philipp Berning; Garth Graham; Seth S Martin; Michael J Blaha

doi:10.1111/imj.15399

Understanding myocardial infarction trends during the early COVID-19 pandemic: an infodemiology study

Intern Med J. 2021 Aug;51(8):1328-1331. doi: 10.1111/imj.15399. Epub 2021 Jul 2.

Authors

Omar Dzaye^{1

2

3}, Matthias Duebgen³, Philipp Berning¹, Garth Graham⁴, Seth S Martin¹, Michael J Blaha¹

Affiliations

¹ Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
² Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
³ Department of Radiology and Neuroradiology, Charité, Berlin, Germany.
⁴ Aetna Foundation, Hartford, Connecticut, USA.

Abstract

During the first months of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in early 2020, Google Trends data in the United States showed a strong increase in search query frequency for chest pain symptoms despite a concurrent decrease in search interest for myocardial infarction. This suggests a reduced attention to acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and chest pain as its main symptom during this time period. These observations could help explain why cardiovascular mortality rose dramatically despite a strong decrease in hospitalisation rates for ACS.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; infodemiology study; myocardial infarction.

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Humans
Myocardial Infarction* / diagnosis
Myocardial Infarction* / epidemiology
Pandemics
SARS-CoV-2
Search Engine
United States / epidemiology