Knowing Comorbidities, Medication Use May Save Lives in COVID-19

Almost one in every five patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in the United States was admitted to the ICU and nearly one-sixth required mechanical ventilation, but the risk of severe illness varied according to a range of underlying comorbidities and medication use, a nationwide study hints.

For hospitalized patients, 20.3% died from the virus, with men and patients 80 years and older at a significantly higher risk of death compared with women and younger patients, respectively. The new findings published December 10, 2020, in JAMA Network Open capture some of the earliest epidemiologic data, risk factors, clinical outcomes, and treatment patterns of patients infected with COVID-19 that were included in a national, administrative database.

Lead investigator Ning Rosenthal, MD, PhD (Premier Inc, Charlotte, NC), said it’s upsetting to hear talk, particularly from politicians, undermining the severity of COVID-19. “We talk with data, and this data is from 592 hospitals across the nation,” she said. “This is a severe, severe disease.”

Of the 35,302 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, 19.4% were admitted to the ICU. The in-hospital mortality rate of hospitalized COVID-19 patients, including those with no ICU stay, was 20.3% in this study, higher than the 9.25% in-hospital mortality rate among all ICU patients treated in hospitals participating the Premier Health Database (PHD) during 2016-2019, Rosenthal pointed out.

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