The impact of COVID-19 on patients with asthma

  1. José Luis Izquierdo
  2. Carlos Almonacid
  3. Yolanda González
  4. Carlos Del Rio-Bermudez
  5. Julio Ancochea
  6. Remedios Cárdenas
  7. Sara Lumbreras
  8. Joan B. Soriano

Reviewed by

Read the full article See related articles

Listed in

Log in to save this article

Abstract

An association between the severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the presence of certain chronic conditions has been suggested. However, unlike influenza and other viruses, the disease burden of COVID-19 in patients with asthma has been less evident.

Objective

To understand the impact of COVID-19 in patients with asthma.

Methods

Using big-data analytics and artificial intelligence through the SAVANA Manager clinical platform, we analysed clinical data from patients with asthma from January 1 to May 10, 2020.

Results

Out of 71 182 patients with asthma, 1006 (1.41%) suffered from COVID-19. Compared to asthmatic individuals without COVID-19, patients with asthma and COVID-19 were significantly older (55 versus 42 years), predominantly female (66% versus 59%), smoked more frequently and had higher prevalence of hypertension, dyslipidaemias, diabetes and obesity. Allergy-related factors such as rhinitis and eczema were less common in asthmatic patients with COVID-19 (p<0.001). In addition, higher prevalence of these comorbidities was observed in patients with COVID-19 who required hospital admission. The use of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) was lower in patients who required hospitalisation due to COVID-19, as compared to non-hospitalised patients (48.3% versus 61.5%; OR 0.58, 95% CI 0.44–0.77). Although patients treated with biologics (n=865; 1.21%) showed increased severity and more comorbidities at the ear, nose and throat level, COVID-19-related hospitalisations in these patients were relatively low (0.23%).

Conclusion

Patients with asthma and COVID-19 were older and at increased risk due to comorbidity-related factors. ICS and biologics are generally safe and may be associated with a protective effect against severe COVID-19 infection.

Article activity feed

  1. Version published to 10.1183/13993003.03142-2020
  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.07.24.20161596v2 on medRxiv
  3. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.07.24.20161596: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementConsent: Likewise, a standard informed consent does not apply to this study.
    IRB: This study was approved by the Ethics and Research Committee of the University Hospital of Guadalajara (Spain).
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    All statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS software (V25.0).
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  4. Version published to 10.1101/2020.07.24.20161596v1 on medRxiv