Patients with asthma hospitalized with COVID-19 in Michigan in 2020 had more severe outcomes after taking certain factors into account, according to a recent study.
What is known and unknown about the relationship between asthma and COVID-19 has been inconsistent during the pandemic. Some prior research has found that individuals with asthma do not have an increased risk for worse COVID-19 outcomes, but a study published this month said that outcomes may appear to be dependent on the type of asthma one has, as well as the factors of sex and age.The patients with asthma in this single-center study, conducted in Michigan, did have more severe COVID-19, after considering these other factors.Additional research is needed to fully understand which aspects of the chronic lung disease might be linked with increased risk from the virus, said the authors, who wrote in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology that “data suggest that it is premature to conclude that asthma is not associated with an increased risk of poor outcomes with COVID-19.”Their research compared hospitalized patients with COVID-19 (confirmed through polymerase chain reaction testing) with asthma (n = 183) and without asthma (n = 1319).To identify asthma severity level, the researchers looked at asthma maintenance medications, Global Initiative for Asthma classification, pulmonary function tests, immunoglobulin E level, and the highest historical absolute eosinophil count to determine if th …
What Influences COVID-19 Severity in Patients With Asthma? – AJMC.com Managed Markets Network
