Association between pre-existing respiratory disease and its treatment, and severe COVID-19: a population cohort study
This English study (total n=8,256,161; 14,479 admitted to hospital with Covid-19) found people with various respiratory diseases had an increased risk of Covid-19-related hospital admission; those with severe asthma had an increased risk of admission to ICU (HR 1.30; 1.08–1.58).
Source:
The Lancet Respiratory Medicine
SPS commentary:
The authors note that unlike previous studies of people hospitalised with COVID-19, which suggested large increases in risk, this cohort provides evidence that the risk of severe COVID-19 in people with common airways diseases is only modestly raised over the risk in people without such diseases. For example, the hazard ratio (HR) for people with asthma was 1.18 (95% CI 1.13-1.24], and for severe asthma (people on three or more current asthma medications) was 1.29 (1.22–1.37).
In a post-hoc analysis, people with two or more prescriptions for inhaled corticosteroids in the 150 days before the study start were at a slightly higher risk of severe COVID-19 compared with all other individuals (HR 1.13 (1.03–1.23) for hospitalisation, 1.63 (1.18–2.24) for ICU admission, and 1.15 (1.01–1.31) for death.