Effect of Race and Ethnicity on In-Hospital Mortality in Patients with COVID-19.

Objective: To identify differences in short-term outcomes of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) according to various racial/ethnic groups. Design: Analysis of Cerner de-identified COVID-19 dataset. Setting: A total of 62 health care facilities. Participants: The cohort included 49,277 adult COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized from December 1, 2019 to November 13, 2020. Main Outcome Measures: The primary outcome of interest was in-hospital mortality. The secondary outcome was non-routine discharge (discharge to destinations other than home, such as short-term hospitals or other facilities including intermediate care and skilled nursing homes). Methods: We compared patients' age, gender, individual components of Charlson and Elixhauser comorbidities, medical complications, use of do-not-resuscitate, use of palliative care, and socioeconomic status between various racial and/or ethnic groups. We further compared the rates of in-hospital mortality and non-routine discharges between various racial and/or ethnic groups. Results: Compared with White patients, in-hospital mortality was significantly higher among African American (OR 1.5; 95%CI:1.3-1.6, P<.001), Hispanic (OR1.4; 95%CI:1.3-1.6, P<.001), and Asian or Pacific Islander (OR 1.5; 95%CI: 1.1-1.9, P=.002) patients after adjustment for age and gender, Elixhauser comorbidities, do-not-resuscitate status, palliative care use, and socioeconomic status. Conclusions: Our study found that, among hospitalized patients with COVID-2019, African American, Hispanic, and Asian or Pacific Islander patients had increased mortality compared with White patients after adjusting for sociodemographic factors, comorbidities, and do-not-resuscitate/palliative care status. Our findings add additional perspective to other recent studies.

Intracerebral Hemorrhage and Coronavirus Disease 2019 in a Cohort of 282,718 Hospitalized Patients.

BACKGROUND: To identify whether the risk of intracerebral hemorrhage is higher in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), we compared the risk factors, comorbidities, and outcomes in patients intracerebral hemorrhage and COVID-19 and those without COVID-19. METHODS: We analyzed the data from the Cerner deidentified COVID-19 data set derived from 62 health care facilities. The data set included patients with an emergency department or inpatient encounter with discharge diagnoses codes that could be associated with suspicion of or exposure to COVID-19 or confirmed COVID-19. RESULTS: There were a total of 154 (0.2%) and 667 (0.3%) patients with intracerebral hemorrhage among 85,645 patients with COVID-19 and 197,073 patients without COVID-19, respectively. In the multivariate model, there was a lower risk of intracerebral hemorrhage in patients with COVID-19 (odds ratio 0.5; 95% confidence interval 0.5-0.6; p < .0001) after adjustment for sex, age strata, race/ethnicity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, nicotine dependence/tobacco use, hyperlipidemia, atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure, long-term anticoagulant use, and alcohol abuse. The proportions of patients who developed pneumonia (58.4% versus 22.5%; p < .0001), acute kidney injury (48.7% versus 31.0%; p < .0001), acute myocardial infarction (11% versus 6.4%; p = .048), sepsis (41.6% versus 22.5%; p < .0001), and respiratory failure (61.7% versus 42.3%; p < .0001) were significantly higher among patients with intracerebral hemorrhage and COVID-19 compared with those without COVID-19. The in-hospital mortality among patients with intracerebral hemorrhage and COVID-19 was significantly higher compared with that among those without COVID-19 (40.3% versus 19.0%; p < .0001). CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis does not suggest that rates of intracerebral hemorrhage are higher in patients with COVID-19. The higher mortality in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage and COVID-19 compared with those without COVID-19 is likely mediated by higher frequency of comorbidities and adverse in-hospital events.

Subarachnoid Hemorrhage and COVID-19: An Analysis of 282,718 Patients.

BACKGROUND: Intracranial hemorrhage (including subarachnoid hemorrhage [SAH]) has been reported in 0.3%-1.2% of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, no study has evaluated the risk of SAH in patients with COVID-19. METHODS: We analyzed data from 62 health care facilities using the Cerner de-identified COVID-19 dataset. RESULTS: There were 86 (0.1%) and 376 (0.2%) patients with SAH among 85,645 patients with COVID-19 and 197,073 patients without COVID-19, respectively. In the multivariate model, there was a lower risk of SAH in patients with COVID-19 (odds ratio 0.5, 95% confidence interval 0.4-0.7, P < 0.0001) after adjusting for sex, age strata, race/ethnicity, hypertension, and nicotine dependence/tobacco use. The proportions of patients who developed pneumonia (58.1% vs. 21.3%, P < 0.0001), acute kidney injury (43% vs. 27.7%, P = 0.0005), septic shock (44.2% vs. 20.7%, P < 0.0001), and respiratory failure (64.0% vs. 39.1%, P < 0.0001) were significantly higher among patients with SAH and COVID-19 compared with patients without COVID-19. The in-hospital mortality among patients with SAH and COVID-19 was significantly higher compared with patients without COVID-19 (31.4% vs. 12.2%, P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: The risk of SAH was not increased in patients with COVID-19. The higher mortality in patients with SAH and COVID-19 compared with patients without COVID-19 is likely mediated by higher frequency of systemic comorbidities.

Acute Ischemic Stroke and COVID-19: An Analysis of 27 676 Patients.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Acute ischemic stroke may occur in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but risk factors, in-hospital events, and outcomes are not well studied in large cohorts. We identified risk factors, comorbidities, and outcomes in patients with COVID-19 with or without acute ischemic stroke and compared with patients without COVID-19 and acute ischemic stroke. METHODS: We analyzed the data from 54 health care facilities using the Cerner deidentified COVID-19 dataset. The dataset included patients with an emergency department or inpatient encounter with discharge diagnoses codes that could be associated to suspicion of or exposure to COVID-19 or confirmed COVID-19. RESULTS: A total of 103 (1.3%) patients developed acute ischemic stroke among 8163 patients with COVID-19. Among all patients with COVID-19, the proportion of patients with hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, atrial fibrillation, and congestive heart failure was significantly higher among those with acute ischemic stroke. Acute ischemic stroke was associated with discharge to destination other than home or death (relative risk, 2.1 [95% CI, 1.6-2.4]; P<0.0001) after adjusting for potential confounders. A total of 199 (1.0%) patients developed acute ischemic stroke among 19 513 patients without COVID-19. Among all ischemic stroke patients, COVID-19 was associated with discharge to destination other than home or death (relative risk, 1.2 [95% CI, 1.0-1.3]; P=0.03) after adjusting for potential confounders. CONCLUSIONS: Acute ischemic stroke was infrequent in patients with COVID-19 and usually occurs in the presence of other cardiovascular risk factors. The risk of discharge to destination other than home or death increased 2-fold with occurrence of acute ischemic stroke in patients with COVID-19.