In a new study, researchers found that the most common comorbidities among patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in the New York City area are high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes.
The research was conducted by a team at Northwell Health in Manhasset and elsewhere.
The team describes the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with COVID-19 admitted to 12 hospitals in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County, New York.
All hospitalized patients between March 1 and April 4, 2020, were included. The data were obtained for 5,700 patients and outcomes were assessed for 2,634 patients who were discharged or died.
The team found that the most common comorbidities were high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes.
At triage, 30.7%, 17.3%, and 27.8% of patients had a respiratory rate greater than 24 breaths/minute, and received supplemental oxygen, respectively. There was a 2.1% rate of respiratory virus co-infection.
During hospitalization, 14.2%, 12.2%, 3.2%, and 21% of patients were treated in the intensive care unit, received invasive mechanical ventilation, were treated with kidney replacement therapy, and died, respectively.
For those requiring mechanical ventilation, mortality was 88.1%. Overall, 2.2% of patients were readmitted with a median time to readmission of three days.
The team says older people, men, and those with pre-existing high blood pressure and/or diabetes have more severe COVID-19 symptoms and the pattern was similar to that reported from China.
One author of the study is Safiya Richardson, M.D., M.P.H. from the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research at Northwell Health in Manhasset.
The study is published in JAMA.
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