The American Heart Association Newsroom reports on new research findings showing that better heart health before the pandemic was linked to a lower risk of severe COVID-19 events.

The study, led by Larner Associate Professor of Medicine Tim Plante, M.D.’11, M.H.S., an internal medicine physician with University of Vermont Health, was published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.

Adults with highest heart health scores at the beginning of the pandemic were nearly half as likely to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19 when compared to those with the lowest scores.

“COVID-19 caused 1.22 million deaths in the U.S. between March 2020 and March 2025, so it’s essential that we understand how important health components, such as heart health, relate to severity of COVID-19 infections,” says Dr. Plante. “Our findings suggest that the tremendous impact of COVID-19 on the U.S. could have been reduced if the general population had had better heart health prior to the onset of the pandemic.”

Read full story at AHA Newsroom

This research was also covered in the Ballinger News, Healio Cardiology News, Inside Precision Medicine, International Business Times, News-Medical.Net, the Poteau Daily News, and WRAL News.