Cardiovascular-related conditions and risk factors in primary care for deprived communities before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: an observational study in Northern England.

Objectives: The North East of England, ranked as having the highest poverty levels and the lowest health outcomes, has the highest cardiovascular disease (CVD) premature mortality. This study aimed to compare CVD-related conditions and risk factors for deprived practice populations with other general practice (GP) populations in Northern England to England overall, before and during COVID-19 to identify changes in recorded CVD-related risk factors and conditions and evidence-based lipid prescribing behaviour.

Design: A population-based observational study of aggregated practice-level data obtained from publicly accessible data sets.