New Data Highlight Most Common Characteristics, Comorbidities, and Outcomes in COVID-19 Patients

On the heels of JUCM’s study of chest x-rays in urgent care patients with COVID-19, the Journal of the American Medical Association just published an article that reveals the most common presenting characteristics, comorbidities, and outcomes of infected patients, based on 5,700 hospitalized patients in New York City, Westchester County, and Long Island, NY. The data show that 14% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients wound up in the ICU; 12% received invasive mechanical ventilation; 3% had to be treated with kidney replacement therapy; and 21% died—roughly 20 times the estimated overall death rate attributed to COVID-19. Hypertension was the most prevalent comorbid condition (found in 57% of those patients), followed by obesity (42%) and diabetes (34%). At triage, 31% of patients were febrile, 17% had a respiratory rate >24 breaths/min, and 28% received supplemental oxygen. The rate of respiratory virus co-infection was 2.1%. Increasing age in patients older than 50 and comorbidities, which also included congestive heart failure and cancer, were contributors to lower estimated 10-year survival. The full text of the JAMA article is available here.