Rates of death, intubation, and admission to intensive care improved markedly during the first 20 months of the pandemic among adults hospitalized with COVID-19.
A current cancer diagnosis posed a significant risk for severe outcomes (ICU admission and death) over the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior COVID-19 vaccination significantly reduced the risk of death amongst cancer patients who develop COVID-19.
Having a COVID-19 vaccination reduces the likelihood of dying from COVID and the size of this effect differs across different patient groups. In particular, the benefits of vaccination are especially great for some of those who otherwise would have had the greatest risk of SARS-CoV-2 mortality.
Through three COVID-19 surges, these data illustrate the stepwise increase in overall mortality rates by age up to ≥90 years. Though intubated patients had differentially higher mortality rates during the delta wave, mortality rates among those patients who required intubation peaked among those aged 70 to 79 years during all three surges. If patients were sick enough to require mechanical ventilation, mortality rates were remarkably consistent regardless of vaccination status.
This research used machine learning strategies to explore the associations of demographic and comorbidity risk factors with mortality in a large sample of patients hospitalized with COVID-19. The 10 risk factors with the strongest overall associations with mortality, reflecting both their main and interactive effects, were age, uncomplicated hypertension, insurance status, site (health system), renal failure, diabetes, vaccination status (binary and number of immunizations), complicated hypertension, and sex.
Summary: Is membership in vulnerable groups associated with disparate mortality outcomes in the hospitalized CEC-UW sample? There was evidence for increased adjusted odds of mortality in Asians and Hispanic patients compared to non-Hispanic Whites, and in rural-residing patients compared to urban dwellers. Black patients and those with a history of psychiatric disorders were not found to experience
differential mortality relative to comparison groups (NHW and those without a psychiatric disorder history, respectively).
Summary: This retrospective cohort study of 60-day readmission included 105,543 COVID-19 survivors at 21 US healthcare systems who were discharged alive between February 2020 and November 2021 and later readmitted. The all-cause readmission rate was 15 percent. Factors associated with readmission included positive smoking history, male sex, government insurance, co-morbidity burden, longer index admissions, and diagnoses at index admission (e.g., cancer, chronic kidney disease, and liver disease).
Summary: Comorbidities, area social deprivation, and access to treatment were all important contributors to the mortality disparity between American Indians and Alaska Natives compared to white inpatients with COVID-19. While those three factors were important contributors, they didn’t explain all of the disparity. Some likely reflects legacies of failing to address historical and ongoing inequities. Other factors could include housing, frontline workers, and access to transportation or the Internet.
Summary: Young Adults who were hospitalized with symptomatic COVID-19 had a mortality rate of 2.6%. A cancer diagnosis was associated with a 2.1 times increased odds of death during hospitalization. Young adults who received a COVID-19 vaccination had a >40% lower odds of ICU admission compared to those without a history of vaccination. The highest percentage of admissions of young adults with symptomatic COVID-19 occurred during the Delta Wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Summary: There are many forms of dementia. All-cause dementia was associated with increased mortality risk from COVID-19. However, this risk was much lower than what was found in previous studies, and was not found in the two most common forms of dementia–Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and vascular dementia. However, when discharge to hospice care was included as a mortality equivalent, all forms of dementia were predictive of mortality.
