The following is a summary of “Comorbidity defines asthmatic patients’ risk of COVID-19 hospitalization: A global perspective,” published in the January 2023 issue of Allergy & Immunology by Skevaki, et al.
Asthma and COVID-19 co-occurrence zones are defined by the worldwide epidemiology of asthma among patients with the coronavirus illness in 2019 (COVID-19), which demonstrates notable regional disparities.
By using standard inclusion criteria and definitions, researchers, for a study, sought to examine the prevalence of asthma among COVID-19-positive hospitalized patients in significant worldwide hubs.
They established a network of 6 academic hospitals in 6 different countries, including Moscow (Clinical Hospital 52 in partnership with Sechenov University), Frankfurt (Goethe University), Giessen (Justus Liebig University), and Stanford (Stanford University) in the United States. In addition, they gathered clinical and laboratory data for patients admitted to hospitals because of COVID-19.
In contrast to their frequency among adults in the neighborhood, asthmatics were overrepresented among hospitalized COVID-19 patients at Stanford and underrepresented in Moscow and Germany. The frequency of asthma was comparable across patients hospitalized in critical care units and those hospitalized in settings other than intensive care units, suggesting that asthmatic patients did not have a higher chance of developing severe COVID-19. Patients with COVID-19 in the Stanford cohort had greater proportions of men and comorbidities, with other chronic inflammatory airway illnesses, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease being the most common comorbidity among these asthmatic patients.
The observed variation in underlying comorbidities, notably chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, among asthmatic patients across nations and continents was related to the COVID-19-associated risk.
Reference: jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(22)01425-7/fulltext