Effect of the period of the covid-19 pandemic on hypertensive people: a prospective cohort study

Objective: To analyze the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic period on habits and lifestyles, adherence to antihypertensive treatment, control of blood pressure and comorbidities, in hypertensive patients followed in a specialized outpatient clinic of high complexity. Design and method: Prospective longitudinal study that evaluated hypertensive patients treated at the hypertension outpatient clinic of a tertiary teaching hospital, in São Paulo - SP, Brazil before and during the covid-19 pandemic. The following were included: older than 18 years old and being followed up for at least six months. Pregnant women were excluded. In the pre-pandemic period, the interview and assessments were carried out between March and May 2019, in person (face to face). During the pandemic, assessments were carried out between March and August 2020, by telephone. Biosocial data, habits and lifestyles and disease history were evaluated. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee. Values of p less or equal 0.05 were considered significant. Results: 111 hypertensive patients were evaluated, the majority (61.3%) women, with a mean age of 66.0 (SD = 12.6) years, 66.7% white, 56.8% married, with an average schooling of 10.5 (SD = 4.2) years. When comparing before and during the pandemic, statistically significant differences (p less or equal 0.05) were observed, respectively, for the variables: monthly income (R$2,362.98 vs R$1,924.88); in the number of widowed (16.2% vs 19.8%) and divorced people (8.1% vs 22.5%), smoking habits (8.1% vs 7.2%), alcoholism (45.0% vs 21.8%) and physical inactivity (97.3% vs 89.2%); glycemia [116.1 (SD = 33.2) vs 129.6 (SD = 57.3) mg/dL] adherence to antihypertensive drug treatment (89.2% vs 54.9%), increase in diabetics ( 48.6% vs 52.2%) and chronic kidney patients (18.9% vs 28.8%). Despite the decrease in blood pressure control, there was no significant difference (67.6% vs 56.9%). Conclusions: The findings indicate that there were favorable influences for habits and lifestyles in hypertensive people in the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, but there was a compromise in income, comorbidities, and especially in adherence to antihypertensive treatment.