Fewer people filling prescriptions for hypertension meds compared to pre-pandemic: Shoppers

Shoppers Drug Mart said that the number of people filling new prescriptions to control blood pressure is 30% lower compared to before the pandemic, suggesting the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a reduction in the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension. “Pre-pandemic, hypertension impacted one-in-four Canadians, growing on pace to hit one-in-three by 2030. At a time when pandemic lifestyle changes—like less movement, more stress, more eating, and increased alcohol consumption—should be driving the number of patients seeking treatment higher, we’ve actually seen a decline,” said Dr. Peter Bafundi, a family physician in Toronto, in a press release by Shoppers Drug Mart. “This is a pandemic effect and suggests hundreds of thousands of Canadians simply don’t know that their health needs attention.” A comparison of the number of patients filling new prescriptions for hypertension medications between 2021 and 2019 suggests roughly one in five people with hypertension is currently either not receiving treatment or is undiagnosed. The Shoppers Drug Mart data showed a trend of an increasing number of new prescriptions once restrictions to prevent COVID-19 were relaxed, according to the press release. “As a healthcare professional, I just really want to encourage Canadians to speak to their physician or local pharmacist to have their blood pressure checked,” Catherine Nolin, a pharmacy owner and pharmacist at two Shoppers Drug Mart locations in Sudbury, told CBC News. Read: Coffee may not trigger atrial fibrillation episodes: study In a survey of 370 Canadian health professionals, 80% said delays in diagnosis and treatment was the biggest pandemic-related issue for people living with heart disease of stroke. The study was conducted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation between August and September 2021. Dr. Clare Atzema, an emergency medicine physician at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, said she had shifts during the pandemic when she didn’t see any patients with cardiovascular conditions. “But those patients needed care, they needed to be seen. Now I am afraid we are going to see a wave of patients who are going to need both more care and more intense care, and we will need new research to figure out how we manage these diseases better,” she said in a Heart and Stroke Foundation press release. The number of visits to physicians decreased during the pandemic. Between March and July 2020, the number of primary care visits in Ontario decreased by 28% compared to the same time in 2019, according to a paper in CMAJ. A pandemic-era increase in hypertension has been seen in other countries. For example, a study from Osaka, Japan showed a 45% increase in the incidence of hypertension between 2019 and 2020 compared to between 2018 and 2019. The study looked at more than 3,570 people who had a medical examination during the study periods. The findings were presented at the American Heart Association scientific sessions held in early November 2021. Read: Salt substitute prevents cardiovascular events in ‘landmark’ study

Fewer people filling prescriptions for hypertension meds compared to pre-pandemic: Shoppers

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