Prevalence and impact of chronic respiratory disease in moderate to severe COVID-19 outcomes

Abstract

The impact of viral infections on chronic respiratory diseases is well known; however, that of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) remains controversial. We aimed to investigate the prevalence of chronic pulmonary diseases in hospitalized COVID-19 patients and to study their impact in the disease’s outcomes. We conducted a retrospective study including COVID-19 patients admitted in the pulmonology department B of Abderrahmen Mami hospital between March 2020 and January 2021. We defined two groups: patients with chronic respiratory diseases (n=142) and patients without respiratory history (n=65). The population was majority male (66%) with a median age of 66 years old. Underlying respiratory disease were present in 65 patients (31%): chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD) (20%), asthma (5%), bronchiectasies (4%) and interstitial lung disease (ILD) (3%). There were no significant differences between reported symptoms in the two groups except for dyspnea more prevalent in patients with respiratory history (p=0,007). Median oxygen requirements were similar in the two groups. Bronchiectasies were associated with longer hospital stay (p=0.001). Chronic respiratory disease weren’t associated with higher risk of intensive care unit transfer (p=0,3) or mortality (p=0,1) except for COPD (p=0.005). Home oxygen therapy was more prescribed for patients with respiratory history (P=0.007). A follow –up 1 month after discharge showed that residual dyspnea was more common in the first group (p=0.0001). Patients with chronic respiratory disease could have more severe and persistent symptoms of COVID19. More attention and long-term follow-up should be scheduled to those patients.