Trend also shows increased cardiac deaths at home<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter<\/b>
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WEDNESDAY, June 4, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Cardiac deaths increased substantially starting in 2020, according to a research letter published online May 30 in JAMA Network Open<\/em>.<\/p>\n Jason H. Wasfy, M.D., from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues described monthly and annual population-based cardiac mortality rates using state death certificate data and reported actual and estimated expected monthly cardiac death rates during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis included death certificate data for 127,746 Massachusetts decedents (January 2014 to July 2024). As of mid-2024, some monthly rates remained elevated.<\/p>\n The researchers found that annual observed cardiac mortality exceeded expected from 2020 to 2023: 16 percent higher in 2020, 17 percent higher in 2021 and 2022, and 6 percent higher in 2023. Cardiac mortality rates exceeded expected for deaths both at home (between 2020 and 2022) and for deaths in hospitals (between 2020 and 2023).<\/p>\n \u201cLots of reports have shown that there have been fewer heart attacks in hospitals since 2020\u2014but something seems to be missing from that data,\u201d Wasfy said in a statement. \u201cWe now show that if you account for deaths at home, cardiac deaths are going up and have stayed up for years. Today there are a lot more people having cardiac deaths at home, which also raises the concern that people with heart disease haven\u2019t been getting the care they need since the pandemic.”<\/p>\n