Due to corona lockdown, patients are less likely to go to a doctor with a stroke

Last year, patients were less likely to seek medical help when they suddenly lost strength in an arm or could no longer speak their words

Heart Foundation fears a repeat

• In corona year 2020, fewer people went to a doctor with stroke complaints
• In the first wave, 29% fewer strokes and 37% fewer TIAs were seen
• It is plausible that people have suffered unnecessary health damage
• Heart Foundation fears repetition and calls on: call 112 immediately in case of stroke complaints!

Last year, patients were less likely to seek medical help if they suddenly lost strength in an arm or could no longer speak. Doctors saw 29% fewer strokes and 37% fewer TIAs during the first corona wave, and this care has not caught up in the months after. This is apparent from ZonMw-funded research by Erasmus MC in the Rotterdam region, which will be published in Neurology on Thursday 30 December. The Heart Foundation is afraid that stroke victims will again avoid care in the current lockdown. The organization urges people to call 112 immediately if they have complaints of a stroke.

The corona pandemic is creating additional barriers to seeking help with stroke complaints. This is the conclusion of Erasmus MC researchers, after analyzing general practitioner data from about 167,000 people in the Rotterdam region. It concerned data from March to December 2020.

Effect of lockdown
In particular, in the first wave, from March to May 2020, the researchers saw a sharp decrease in the number of people who saw a doctor with stroke complaints. Evelien de Schepper, general practitioner-epidemiologist at Erasmus MC: “The advice to stay at home as much as possible during the lockdowns may have resulted in people not seeking help despite alarm symptoms. Follow-up research with data from other regions should confirm whether the picture is the same there.”

Don’t worry later
In the months after the first lockdown, the number of stroke diagnoses rose again, but there was no catching-up effect: there were fewer diagnoses over the entire year 2020. In the hospital records of 2020, the number of admissions for TIA, a temporary stroke, decreased by 15% compared to the previous year. Exact, national figures on the number of people who went untreated for stroke and TIA are not yet available. But it is plausible that people have suffered unnecessary health damage.

Heart Foundation: Results are worrisome
Floris Italianer, director of the Heart Foundation: “People often find it difficult enough to estimate the severity of the stroke signals. As a result, they do not immediately seek help. Corona seems to complicate this even further. We fear that people will suffer unnecessary health damage. Because this is not a concern that you can put off. People with stroke complaints should be seen by a doctor quickly. Treatment is also often necessary for a TIA to prevent a serious stroke.”

Mond, speech, poor. Stroke Alert!
The Heart Foundation draws attention to the signs of a stroke and calls on people to immediately call for medical help in the event of one of these signs, preferably via 112. Every year, about 40,000 people in the Netherlands have a stroke and about 54,000 people have a TIA.

How do you recognize a stroke?
The most common signs of a stroke are:
Crooked Mouth: The corner of the mouth suddenly hangs down.
Confused Speech: Someone suddenly talks confused or has difficulty pronouncing the words.
Lame arm: Suddenly there is loss of strength or paralysis of one arm.
Do you recognize any of the signs? Call 112 immediately.

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