Trends of Cardiac Complaints in Pediatric and Young Adult Populations During the COVID-19 Pandemic

TL;DR

This study examines how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the frequency of cardiac complaints in children and young adults within the military health system.

Contribution

The study provides new insights into the trends of less severe cardiac symptoms during the pandemic.

Findings

Chest pain had the highest presentation rate compared to syncope and palpitations.

All three symptoms showed a significant decrease in the first year of the pandemic.

In the second year, chest pain and syncope decreased, while palpitations slightly increased.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the physical and mental health of all age groups. While many studies have evaluated the serious cardiac manifestation associated with multisystem inflammatory syndrome of children, there are less studies evaluating how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the presentation of less severe symptomatic cardiac manifestations. This large retrospective cross-sectional study examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the cardiovascular health of patients 1 to 24 years of age by assessing care presentation trends for chest pain, palpitations, and syncope for patients in the military health system. Overall, chest pain had the highest rate of presentation when compared to syncope and palpitations. There was a significant decrease in the rate of incidence for all three cardiac symptoms during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the pre-COVID-19 period. When comparing the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic to the pre-COVID-19 period, there was a significant decrease in chest pain and syncope but a slight increase in palpitations. Overall, our results showed that these common cardiac presentations did not greatly increase during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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