Add another negative health outcome to the long list of COVID-related health implications.

According to the American Heart Association (Heart.org), Americans have been delaying regular health screenings for an assortment of non-COVID-related issues, including blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease. 

The impact of the delays is just now starting to be felt, and the results are not good. 

There has been a rise in blood pressure rates, diabetes and risk of death from both heart disease and stroke.

Since before the pandemic, the risk of dying from heart disease has increased by 4.3%; the risk of dying by stroke has increased by 6.4%. That risk is worse for Black people, who had double the risk of dying of stroke and a fivefold higher risk of dying from heart disease than white people. 

“Some of it, really, in the beginning of the pandemic, was fear,” explained Dr. Suzie Mookherjee, a member of the board of directors of the American Heart Association and a cardiologist at Albany Medical Center Hospital. “Fear of going to the hospital. Fear of going to the doctor’s office. Fear of waiting in the waiting room with other people who might be coughing.”

It’s not always the patient who is to blame for delayed screenings. 

Hospitals and doctors’ offices are seeing increased absences due to COVID-19, as well as the same staffing issues that have plagued other sectors.

“It can get very frustrating for patients as well as for us,” she said.

The American Heart Association is urging Americans to keep up-to-date with health screenings as well as to monitor blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol. The organization also recommends 150 minutes of exercise per week, and seven hours of sleep per night.