Most hospitalized coronavirus patients in New York had underlying issues, study says

Most coronavirus patients requiring hospitalization had underlying health issues prior to be infected, a new study finds, and some of the problems posed a greater risk than others.

Researchers looked at records of 5,700 patients in 12 New York hospitals for the study, which was published in the Journal of American Medicine on Wednesday.

Over half of them — 56 percent — suffered from hypertension, according to the study. Nearly 42 percent were obese, 34 percent were diabetic, and hundreds had other issues such as asthma, cancer, and kidney disease.

About 94 percent of the patients had an underlying issue. And 88 percent had more than one, Time Magazine reported.

“Having serious comorbidities increases your risk,” Karina Davidson, one of the study’s authors told Time. “This is a very serious disease with a very poor outcome for those who have severe infections from it. We want patients with serious chronic disease to take a special precaution and to seek medical attention early.”

By the end of the study, about 2,050 patients had been discharged from the hospital and 553 had died. Fourteen percent of those roughly 2,600 patients required ICU treatment and 12 percent were put on ventilators.

Of those who died, diabetics were more likely to need a ventilator and/or wind up in the ICU, than those with other health issues, according to the study. The data also show that 88 percent of patients put on ventilators ultimately died.

The study does not reflect the outcomes of the other 3,100 patients, but notes that the “absence of data on patients who remained hospitalized at the final study date may have biased the findings, including the high mortality rate of patients who received mechanical ventilation older than age 65 years.”

This story was originally published April 22, 2020 at 9:30 PM.