In the 10 months after hospital discharge, patients who had COVID-19 were more than twice as likely to be hospitalized or die compared with the general population, according to findings published in PLOS Medicine. Krishnan Bhaskaran, PhD, MSc, and colleagues examined medical records from nearly 25,000 adults who survived a COVID-19-related hospitalization in 2020, most of whom were aged 60 or older. Each patient was compared with five people of the same age, sex, and area of residence from the general population and with more than 16,000 people hospitalized for influenza from 2017-2019. At 6 months, almost 35% of patients with COVID-19 had been hospitalized again or died, compared with 15% of the comparison group. While patients with COVID-19 were often on par with patients who had influenza in terms of the risk for being re-hospitalized for other causes, their odds of dying from any cause were higher: 7.5% had died 6 months after discharge compared with 5% of patients with influenza. As a group, patients with COVID-19 were 37% more likely than patients with influenza to be hospitalized for a mental health condition or issues with cognition.
