Hospitalization, death more likely in COVID-19 patients with asthma

This is a photo of a patient being rushed into a hospital by medical staff.

Preliminary research into the health outcomes for a dual diagnosis of asthma and COVID-19 may lead to a profound warning for patients. According to new research from New York Medical College in Valhalla, this combination is twice as likely to lead to hospitalization and five times more likely to result in death.

The National Inpatient Sample (NIS) study, “Impact of Asthma on the Severity of COVID-19 Infection: 2020 National Inpatient Sample Analysis,” was presented as an abstract at the 2024 American Thoracic Society International Conference. Lead author Antony Arumairaj, MD, assistant professor of medicine, said the preliminary data will prompt his team to dig deeper. The results, he said, offered conflicting evidence about asthma's impact on COVID-19 outcomes in previous studies.

This is a photo of Antony Arumairaj, MD who is quoted in the article.Antony Arumairaj, MD“There are some clinical studies which showed that it was a protective factor. Some said it was a high-risk factor,” Dr. Arumairaj said. “So, we decided to do a national patient sample analysis. This is a preliminary analysis. We must do the final analysis with adjustments for other possible confounders before we can actually come to a conclusion. Then we will have a much clearer picture.”

Researchers studied 339,873 adults hospitalized with COVID-19 and asthma as reported by the National Inpatient Sample 2020. The study used STATA/MP 17.0 software for statistical analysis. P-values were calculated using the Chi-square test for categorical variables and the t-test for continuous variables. Additionally, researchers investigated demographic and clinical risk factors among COVID-19 patients with and without asthma.

The NIS analysis concluded that the hospitalization of COVID-19 infection in patients with asthma was two times higher than in patients without asthma. The severity and mortality rate among COVID-19 infections in patients with asthma was nearly five times higher than in COVID-19 patients without asthma. Further, NIS analysis showed that patients with asthma had more severe outcomes from COVID-19 infection than those without asthma. 

Although the study reflected on preliminary results, Dr. Arumairaj and his team indicated they will continue their analysis to incorporate comorbidities, whether patients were hospitalized in teaching or nonteaching hospitals and if they were in tertiary, rural or suburban hospitals.

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