Characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 patients with and without asthma from the United States, South Korea, and Europe. (2nd January 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Morales, Daniel R.; Ostropolets, Anna; Lai, Lana; Sena, Anthony; Duvall, Scott; Suchard, Marc; Verhamme, Katia; Rjinbeek, Peter; Posada, Joe; Ahmed, Waheed; Alshammary, Thamer; Alghoul, Heba; Alser, Osaid; Areia, Carlos; Blacketer, Clair; Burn, Edward; Casajust, Paula; You, Seng Chan; Dawoud, Dalia; Golozar, Asieh; Gong, Menchung; Jonnagaddala, Jitendra; Lynch, Kristine; Matheny, Michael; Minty, Evan; Nyberg, Fredrik; Uribe, Albert; Recalde, Martina; Reich, Christian; Scheumie, Martijn; Shah, Karishma; Shah, Nigam; Schilling, Lisa; Vizcaya, David; Zhang, Lin; Hripcsak, George; Ryan, Patrick; Prieto-Alhambra, Daniel; Durate-Salles, Talita; Kostka, Kristin;
• Is Part Of: Journal of asthma. Volume 60:Number 1(2023)
• Page Start: 76
• Page End: 86
• Publication Date: 2023-01-02
• Subjects: Asthma -- COVID-19 -- comorbidity -- epidemiology; Asthma -- Periodicals; 616.238005
• DOI: 10.1080/02770903.2021.2025392
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0277-0903

Abstract

Abstract: Objective: Large international comparisons describing the clinical characteristics of patients with COVID-19 are limited. The aim of the study was to perform a large-scale descriptive characterization of COVID-19 patients with asthma. Methods: We included nine databases contributing data from January to June 2020 from the US, South Korea (KR), Spain, UK and the Netherlands. We defined two cohorts of COVID-19 patients ('diagnosed' and 'hospitalized') based on COVID-19 disease codes. We followed patients from COVID-19 index date to 30 days or death. We performed descriptive analysis and reported the frequency of characteristics and outcomes in people with asthma defined by codes and prescriptions. Results: The diagnosed and hospitalized cohorts contained 666, 933 and 159, 552 COVID-19 patients respectively. Exacerbation in people with asthma was recorded in 1.6–8.6% of patients at presentation. Asthma prevalence ranged from 6.2% (95% CI 5.7–6.8) to 18.5% (95% CI 18.2–18.8) in the diagnosed cohort and 5.2% (95% CI 4.0–6.8) to 20.5% (95% CI 18.6–22.6) in the hospitalized cohort. Asthma patients with COVID-19 had high prevalence of comorbidity including hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. Mortality ranged from 2.1% (95% CI 1.8–2.4) to 16.9% (95% CI 13.8–20.5) and similar or lower compared to COVID-19 patients without asthma. Acute respiratory distress syndrome occurred in 15–30% of hospitalized COVID-19 asthma patients. Conclusion: The prevalence of asthma among COVID-19 patients varies internationally. Asthma patients with COVID-19 have high comorbidity. The prevalence of asthma exacerbation at presentation was low. Whilst mortality was similar among COVID-19 patients with and without asthma, this could be confounded by differences in clinical characteristics. Further research could help identify high-risk asthma patients. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02770903.2021.2025392 .