Analysis of home and hospital deaths from respiratory and cardiovascular causes during the COVID-19 pandemic in Minas Gerais

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic in Minas Gerais (MG) resulted in a decrease of the demand for healthcare, such as outpatient consultations, exams and elective surgeries, as one of the contingency strategies. Objective: To analyze deaths from respiratory and cardiac causes during the first half of 2020 occurring in households and hospitals in MG. Methodology: The causes of deaths were analyzed using data from the Civil Registry Transparency Portal (ARPEN) in epidemiological weeks 1^st to 23^th. Results: It is noted that there was an increase in home deaths due to pneumonia (17.59%), respiratory failure (IR) (20.65%), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) (20.69%), sepsis (31.91%), Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) (12.09%), stroke (11.84%) and other cardiac causes (14.97%) compared to the same period in 2019. It can be observed that in the same period there was a decrease of hospital deaths for the same causes, for pneumonia by 6.08%, for IR by 3.59%, for sepsis by 2.21%, for stroke by 6.27%, for AMI by 0.25%, and for others cardiac causes by 0.15%, except for SARS with an increase by 338.30%. Total hospital deaths in 2020 due to respiratory and cardiovascular etiologies compared to 2019 show a reduction by 3.24% and 2.18%, respectively, with a higher prevalence in men, aged 75 to 80 years. Discussion and Conclusions: It is believed that part of these deaths are related to the restructuring of the dynamics of hospital care, associated with the fear of seeking assistance and becoming infected by the new coronavirus. In conclusion that there was an increase in home deaths and a reduction in hospital deaths in 2020 due to respiratory and cardiac causes in the context of the pandemic.