Physical Activity in Patients With Heart Failure During and After COVID-19 Lockdown: Single-Center Observational Retrospective Study

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic forced several European governments to impose severe lockdown measures. The reduction of physical activity during the lockdown could have been deleterious. ObjectiveThe aim of this observational, retrospective study was to investigate the effect of the lockdown strategy on the physical activity burden and subsequent reassessment in a group of patients with heart failure who were followed by means of remote monitoring. MethodsWe analyzed remote monitoring transmissions during the 3-month period immediately preceding the lockdown, 69 days of lockdown, and 3-month period after the first lockdown in a cohort of patients with heart failure from a general hospital in Lombardy, Italy. We compared variation of daily physical activity measured by cardiac implantable electrical devices with clinical variables collected in a hospital database. ResultsWe enrolled 41 patients with heart failure that sent 176 transmissions. Physical activity decreased during the lockdown period (mean 3.4, SD 1.9 vs mean 2.9, SD 1.8 hours/day; P