Severe COVID-19 among patients with asthma and COPD: a report from the Swedish National Airway Register

• Published in: Therapeutic advances in respiratory disease 2021, Vol.15, p.17534666211049738
• Main Authors: Karlsson Sundbaum, Johanna, Vanfleteren, Lowie E.G.W., Konradsen, Jon R., Nyberg, Fredrik, Ekberg-Jansson, Ann, Stridsman, Caroline
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Asthma; Asthma - epidemiology; Asthma - mortality; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; COPD; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 - mortality; COVID-19 - physiopathology; Databases, Factual; death certificates; Female; Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi; Hospitalization; Humans; Infectious Medicine; Infektionsmedicin; Intensive care; Intensive Care Units - statistics & numerical data; lung diseases; Lungmedicin och allergi; Male; Medical Science; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Medicinsk vetenskap; Middle Aged; Mortality; obstructive; obstructive lung diseases; Original Research; prevalence; Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - epidemiology; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - mortality; quality register; register studies; Registries; Respiratory Medicine and Allergy; Respiratory System; Severity of Illness Index; Sweden - epidemiology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1753-4666; 1753-4658; 1753-4666
• DOI: 10.1177/17534666211049738

Background: Patients with obstructive lung diseases may be at risk of hospitalization and/or death due to COVID-19. Aim: To estimate the frequency of severe COVID-19, and COVID-19-related mortality in a well-defined large population of patients with asthma and chronic inflammatory lung disease (COPD). Further to assess the frequency of asthma and COPD as registered comorbidities at discharge from hospital, and in death certificates. Methods: At the start of the pandemic, the Swedish National Airway Register (SNAR) included 271,404 patients with a physician diagnosis of asthma and/or COPD. In September 2020, after the first COVID-19 wave in Sweden, the database was linked with the National Patient Register (NPR), the Swedish Intensive Care Register and the Swedish Cause of Death Register, which all provide data about COVID-19 based on International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) codes. Severe COVID-19 was defined as hospitalization and/or intensive care or death due to COVID-19. Results: Among patients in SNAR, 0.5% with asthma, and 1.2% with COPD were identified with severe COVID-19. Among patients