Clinical Characteristics of Asymptomatic Patients with COVID-19: A Nationwide Cohort Study in South Korea.
Int J Infect Dis
; 99: 266-268, 2020 Oct.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-695925
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
To delineate clinical characteristics of asymptomatic and symptomatic patients confirmed with COVID-19 in South Korea.METHODS:
Data were obtained from the Korean National Health Insurance Service database linked to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.RESULTS:
Among 10,237 patients (mean [SD] age, 45.0 [19.8] years; 60.1% female) who met the eligibility criteria for the study, 6,350 (62.0%) patients were asymptomatic, and 3,887(38.0%) patients were symptomatic. The mean and median age were similar between asymptomatic and symptomatic patients. Notably, we observed a U-shaped association between age group and the proportion of asymptomatic patients, with the nadir at 57.3% in the 40-49 age group. This U-shaped distribution was largely similar between men and women. The overall prevalence of asymptomatic individuals was higher, regardless of sex, residential area, income levels, and comorbid conditions.CONCLUSIONS:
In this national cohort of over 10,000 patients with COVID-19, more than 60% of all cases in South Korea reported no symptoms at the time of diagnosis. Expanding criteria for contact tracing and testing to capture potential transmission before symptom onset should be urgently considered to inform control strategies for COVID-19.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Pneumonia, Viral
/
Coronavirus Infections
/
Asymptomatic Infections
/
Betacoronavirus
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Diagnostic study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
/
Young adult
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
English
Journal:
Int J Infect Dis
Journal subject:
Communicable Diseases
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
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