Cohort characteristics
Between March 1, 2020 and September 30, 2020, 168,190 patients underwent SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing at SHC (Figure 1). 5,596 SARS-CoV-2 positive patients were included in the analysis: 605 (10.8%) of patients were hospitalized at SHC, including 100 patients (16.5%) with a diagnosis of asthma. SARS-CoV-2 positive outpatients were also included (4,991), 498 (9.98%) were identified as asthmatic. In our cohort, cases and hospitalizations first peaked in March 2020 and then again in July 2020 (Supplemental Figure 1).
Baseline characteristics for all patients including sex, smoking history, BMI, race and ethnicity were comparable between hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients with and without asthma (Table 1). Hospitalized asthmatics were significantly older than non-hospitalized asthmatics, but there was no significant difference in age between hospitalized patients with and without asthma. Moreover, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic renal disease, obesity, and other chronic lung disease were significantly more prevalent among hospitalized asthmatics compared to the other groups (Table 1).