Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

November 3, 2020

Symptoms at Presentation for Patients Admitted to Hospital with Covid-19 Results from the ISARIC Prospective Multinational Observational Study

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[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] Results from a large prospective cohort (n=60,161 symptomatic patients with confirmed COVID-19 from 43 countries) found that the most sensitive case definition, which was met by 92% of the cohort, was one or more of cough, shortness of breath, fever, muscle pains or sort throat. These symptoms were more frequent among patients aged 30-60 years, and less frequent among both children (<=18 years) and older adults (>=70 years). For patients who did not meet any of the assessed case definitions, confusion was the most common symptom, particularly among older patients. For patients younger than 70 years old, nausea and vomiting, and abdominal pain were the most common symptoms. The authors note that older adults and children admitted to hospital with COVID-19 are less likely to present with typical symptoms of cough, fever and shortness of breath, and that inclusion of atypical symptoms could result in higher sensitivity.

Pritchard et al. (Oct 27, 2020). Symptoms at Presentation for Patients Admitted to Hospital with Covid-19 Results from the ISARIC Prospective Multinational Observational Study. Pre-print downloaded Nov 3 from https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.26.20219519