TY - JOUR AU - Hoang, Sy Van AU - Nguyen, Kha Minh AU - Le, Hoa Thi Anh AU - Tung, Au Thanh AU - Huynh, Phat Vuong Tien AU - Le, Truong Van AU - Huynh, Khoa Le Anh AU - Vuong, Nicole AU - Dhouibi, Nacir AU - Nguyen, Huy Tien PY - 2022/02/28 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - The effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on patients with chronic cardiovascular disease in Vietnam JF - The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries JA - J Infect Dev Ctries VL - 16 IS - 02 SE - Coronavirus Pandemic DO - 10.3855/jidc.15002 UR - https://jidc.org/index.php/journal/article/view/35298421 SP - 268-275 AB - <p>Introduction: We evaluated the impact of the lockdown policy during the COVID-19 pandemic on cardiovascular outpatients of a cardiology clinic in Vietnam from April to June 2020. We estimated the occurrence of different cardiovascular problems in general and the stability of blood pressure.</p><p>Methodology: During the Covid-19 outbreak in Vietnam, we conducted a cross-sectional study to evaluate its impact on blood pressure stability of hypertensive patients treated as outpatients at the clinic of the University Medical Center (UMC), Ho Chi Minh City.</p><p>Results: The mean age of the recruited 493 patients was 62.2 ± 10.2 years. The stable blood pressure group consisted of 87% patients, while the unstable blood pressure group consisted of 13% patients. We found that 68% of the study population attended their follow-up appointments as scheduled: 87% with stable blood pressure versus only 13% with unstable blood pressure. Significant differences were noticed in body weight changes and cardiovascular problems between the two groups: body weight increase (22.6% <em>vs</em>. 10.2%), body weight decrease (3.2% <em>vs</em>. 6.7%), worsening of cardiovascular problems (35.5% <em>vs</em>. 17.9%) in the unstable and stable blood pressure groups, respectively. Multivariable regression analysis reflected the impact of the increase in body weight and occurrence of cardiovascular problems on the patients with unstable blood pressure.</p><p>Conclusions: Our study provided concrete proof of the impact of the lockdown on chronic patients, which should warrant further surveys, and evaluation of the lockdown policy.</p> ER -