Lockdown restrictions tied to decreased physical activity in those with pacemakers, ICDs
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Pandemic lockdown restrictions in New York City and Minneapolis/St. Paul were associated with a decrease in physical activity among patients with pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators, researchers reported.
According to a research letter published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the observed reduction in physical activity has yet to return to pre-lockdown levels, as of December 2020.
“Public health restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have disrupted routine physical activities,” Yuan Lu, ScD, assistant professor and K12 Yale Scholar in implementation science at the Yale School of Medicine, and colleagues wrote. “Little objective information is available on the extent to which physical activity has changed among patients with cardiovascular disease who are at high risk of adverse clinical outcomes from reduced activity.”
To evaluate trends in physical activity before and during the pandemic, Lu and colleagues used Boston Scientific’s LATITUDE database to identify adults living in New York City and Minneapolis/St. Paul with pacemakers or ICDs that provided reliable measurements of activity level. Researchers assessed physical activity levels via accelerometer data that detected frequency and amplitude of an individual’s motion.
According to the research letter, New York City and Minneapolis/St. Paul were chosen due to data availability and an asynchronous burden of COVID-19 cases.
This study included 11,102 patients (median age, 76 years; 42% women).
Before the institution of pandemic restrictions in 2020, average daily physical activity was approximately 89.7 minutes in New York City and 89.1 minutes in Minneapolis/St. Paul, but declined considerably during the lockdown period in both cities (P < .001).
According to the research letter, the median decrease in daily physical activity was 26 minutes in New York City (26% reduction) and 14 minutes in Minneapolis/St. Paul (15% reduction) compared with the same period in 2019.
Researchers observed the largest decreases in physical activity during the first 2 weeks of the pandemic restriction in both cities, which slowly increased over the following months; however, at 5 months after lockdown restrictions were lifted, physical activity had not returned to 2019 levels.
Moreover, the median daily level of physical activity in 2020 remained 14.5 minutes lower in New York City (84.5 vs. 99 minutes; P < .01) and 9.6 minutes lower in Minneapolis/St. Paul (81.2 vs. 95.5 minutes; P < 0.01) compared with the same period in 2019.
Lu and colleagues reported that these trends were consistent by age and sex.
“These findings highlight the need to identify patients with significant activity reductions, support simple and safe ways to stay physically active within the limits of pandemic restrictions, and resume prior activities as restrictions are lifted,” Lu and colleagues wrote. “In conclusion, the public health restrictions for COVID-19 were associated with a persistent decrease in physical activity among patients with cardiovascular disease.”
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