Elevated Risk of Chronic Respiratory Conditions within 60 Days of COVID-19 Hospitalization in Veterans.

Catherine Park,Aanand D Naik,Kristine E Lynch,Javad Razjouyan,Christopher I Amos,Drew A Helmer,Nicola A Hanania,Amir Sharafkhaneh

doi:10.3390/healthcare10020300

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 infection prominently affects the respiratory system, and patients hospitalized with COVID-19 are at an increased risk of developing respiratory conditions. We examined the risk of new respiratory conditions of COVID-19 among hospitalized patients in the national Veterans Health Administration between 15 February 2020 and 16 June 2021. The study cohort included all COVID-19-tested, hospitalized individuals who survived the index admission and did not have any previously diagnosed chronic respiratory conditions (asthma, bronchitis, chronic lung disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, or venous thromboembolism) before SARS-CoV-2 testing. Of 373,048 patients hospitalized after SARS-CoV-2 testing, 18,686 positive and 37,372 negative patients met the inclusion/exclusion criteria and were matched by age, sex, and race using propensity score matching. The results showed that the SARS-CoV-2 positive group had a greater risk of developing asthma (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 1.37), bronchitis (aOR = 2.81), chronic lung disease (aOR = 2.14), COPD (aOR = 1.56), emphysema (aOR = 1.52), and venous thromboembolism (aOR = 1.92) within 60 days after the index COVID date of testing. These findings could inform that the clinical care team considers a risk of new respiratory conditions and address these conditions in the post-hospitalization management of the patient, which could potentially lead to reduce the risk of complications and optimize recovery.

Highlights

Patients hospitalized with COVID-19 are at high risk of developing acute respiratory conditions [3,4], such as pneumonia, respiratory failure, and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which can often lead to death, especially in at-risk and older adults [5]
These studies have been limited to small samples, lacked an optimal comparison group, and failed to exclude patients with previous chronic respiratory conditions of patients. The objective of this retrospective study is to evaluate the risk of developing new respiratory conditions (asthma, bronchitis, chronic lung disease, COPD, emphysema, and venous thromboembolism (VTE)) in associationwith COVID-19 by comparing patients with and without SARS-CoV-2 infection hospitalized in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA)
The data showed that VHA patients hospitalized with COVID-19 had a higher risk of being diagnosed with all respiratory conditions examined, including asthma, bronchitis, chronic lung disease, COPD, emphysema, or VTE compared to hospitalized

Summary

Introduction

Observational studies have reported that patients with COVID-19 are at high risk of developing respiratory conditions that can persist after COVID-19 recovery [6,7,8,9,10]. These studies have been limited to small 4.0/). Samples, lacked an optimal comparison group, and failed to exclude patients with previous chronic respiratory conditions of patients The objective of this retrospective study is to evaluate the risk of developing new respiratory conditions (asthma, bronchitis, chronic lung disease, COPD, emphysema, and venous thromboembolism (VTE)) in associationwith COVID-19 by comparing patients with and without SARS-CoV-2 infection hospitalized in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA)

Methods

Results

Conclusion