Social Distancing, Stroke Admissions and Stroke Mortality During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Multicenter, Longitudinal Study

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to evaluate the relationship between social distancing, stroke admissions and stroke mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic, while accounting for the rate of COVID-19 admissions. METHODS: We performed a longitudinal analysis of a multicenter, prospective, hospital-based registry of intensive care units from 19 hospitals from Brazil, comprising a 14-month period of the COVID-19 pandemic. We investigated whether the daily rate of admissions (DRA(stroke)) and daily mortality rate for stroke were associated with the social distancing index (SDI), taking into account the daily rate of admissions for COVID-19 (DRA(COVID)) in univariate and multivariate regression models. We also compared the clinical characteristics of patients with stroke admitted before and during the pandemic. RESULTS: We found that DRA(stroke) decreased significantly in association with a strong rise in the SDI during the early months of the pandemic. However, in the latter period of the pandemic, only minor changes were observed in the SDI, and still, DRA(stroke) was inversely associated with the DRA(COVID). Throughout the pandemic, higher SDI and DRA(COVID) were associated with higher in-hospital mortality for stroke. CONCLUSIONS: The severity of surges of the COVID-19 pandemic were independently and persistently associated with declines in stroke admissions, even during periods when social distancing policies were not intensified.