May 12, 2021

Trends over Time in the Risk of Adverse Outcomes among Patients with SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Clinical Characteristics and Health Care Setting

Keywords (Tags): clinical characteristics

• In the 30 days following a positive SARS-CoV-2 test, a decline in hospitalization (44% to 16%) and death (20% to 5%) was observed between February and July 2020 in a cohort of enrollees in the US Veterans Affairs healthcare system (n=55,952). Similar trends were also observed for 30-day incidence for ICU admission and mechanical ventilation. All trends subsequently plateaued through September 2020. The decrease in hospitalization persisted after adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics, comorbid conditions, documented symptoms and laboratory tests, including among subgroups of patients either hospitalized, admitted to the ICU or treated with mechanical ventilation. During the study period, there were also reductions in the use of hydroxychloroquine (57% to 0%) and azithromycin (48% to 17%) and increases in the use of dexamethasone (3% to 53%), corticosteroids (5% to 29%), and remdesevir (2% to 45%) among hospitalized patients.

Ioannou et al. (May 11, 2021). Trends over Time in the Risk of Adverse Outcomes among Patients with SARS-CoV-2 Infection. Clinical Infectious Diseases. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab419