The influence of COVID-19 pandemic on the Scottish congenital heart disease population

In Scotland, there are ~10, 000 people who were born with a heart defect (ie:- congenital heart disease), which may make them vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19 infection. The pandemic can affect people with heart disease directly, due to viral infection, or affect them indirectly, because they are reluctant to visit hospital or because routine services have been suspended. We intend to find out how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected people with congenital heart disease in Scotland. Patients will be identified from our clinical data-bases. Information on them will be obtained by linkage to national data-sets on COVID-19, prescriptions, hospitalisations and deaths. Rates of COVID-19 testing and infection will be compared for people with and without congenital heart disease, matched for age and sex. Rates of emergency hospitalisations and deaths (overall and due to COVID) in 2020 will be compared with previous years (2010-19) to identify if there has been a disproportionate increase in events in people with congenital heart disease compared to the age and sex matched general population. We are not aware of any other group, worldwide, specifically investigating the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with congenital heart disease.