Covid-19: infection increases the risk of developing cardiovascular disease by 55%

 Being infected with Covid-19 increases the risk of developing cardiovascular disease by 55% in the year following contamination. This is the finding of a study published on February 7 by American researchers. 

People with Covid-19 have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, USA have been interested in the consequences of Covid-19 on the heart and blood circulation of Covid-19 infected patients. To carry out their research, they analyzed data from 153,760 infected people in the United States between March 2020 and January 15, 2021, which they compared to data from 5 million uninfected people.

According to the results published on February 7, 2022, in the journal Nature Medicine, people with Covid-19 have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (cerebrovascular disorders, dysrhythmias, ischemic and non-ischemic heart disease, pericarditis, myocarditis, heart failure and thromboembolic disease).

In detail, Covid-19 infection increases the risk of cardiac arrest by 63% and stroke by 52%. In total and all cardiovascular diseases combined, the infection increases the risk of developing cardiovascular disease by 55%. 

A risk that also concerns people without comorbidities

Although the risk of developing cardiovascular disease is greater in hospitalized people, it also increases in people infected without comorbidities, in those who have had mild forms and in those who have not been hospitalized.

According to University of Washington assistant professor of medicine and study author Ziyad Al-Aly, "Even people who have never had heart problems and are considered low risk can develop the cardiovascular disease after Covid. Our data show that the risk increases in young and old people, in those with diabetes and those without, in those who have had heart disease before and in those with no history of cardiovascular disease, in those who have been hospitalized for Covid-19 as well as in those with mild forms of Covid-19."

Covid has led to more than 15 million cardiovascular diseases worldwide

Researchers estimate that 15 million people are suffering from cardiovascular disease due to coronavirus infection. Indeed, the authors of the study note that cardiovascular diseases affected about 4% more people in the group of infected people. Given that there have been more than 380 million infected people worldwide, they conclude that Covid-19 may have caused more than 15 million cardiovascular diseases.