Characteristics and outcomes of patients with COVID-19 with and without prevalent hypertension: a multinational cohort study

• Published in: BMJ open Vol. 11; no. 12; p. e057632
• Main Authors: Reyes, Carlen, Pistillo, Andrea, Fernández-Bertolín, Sergio, Recalde, Martina, Roel, Elena, Puente, Diana, Sena, Anthony G, Blacketer, Clair, Lai, Lana, Alshammari, Thamir M, Ahmed, Waheed-UI-Rahman, Alser, Osaid, Alghoul, Heba, Areia, Carlos, Dawoud, Dalia, Prats-Uribe, Albert, Valveny, Neus, de Maeztu, Gabriel, Sorlí Redó, Luisa, Martinez Roldan, Jordi, Lopez Montesinos, Inmaculada, Schilling, Lisa M, Golozar, Asieh, Reich, Christian, Posada, Jose D, Shah, Nigam, You, Seng Chan, Lynch, Kristine E, DuVall, Scott L, Matheny, Michael E, Nyberg, Fredrik, Ostropolets, Anna, Hripcsak, George, Rijnbeek, Peter R, Suchard, Marc A, Ryan, Patrick, Kostka, Kristin, Duarte-Salles, Talita
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England British Medical Journal Publishing Group 22.12.2021; BMJ Publishing Group LTD; BMJ Publishing Group
• Series: Original research
• Subjects: Age; Chronic illnesses; Clinical Medicine; Cohort analysis; Cohort Studies; Comorbidity; coronavirus disease 2019; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 Testing; Disease; Electronic health records; Epidemiology; Female; Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi; General & Internal Medicine; Health insurance; Heart failure; Hospitalization; Humans; Hypertension; Hypertension - epidemiology; Information systems; Klinisk medicin; Medical research; Middle Aged; mortality; Ostomy; Pandemics; Patients; Primary care; Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology; Retrospective Studies; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; South Korea; Netherlands; United Kingdom > UK; United States > US; Italy; France; Germany; Spain; COVID-19; epidemiology; hypertension
• ISSN: 2044-6055; 2044-6055
• DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057632

ObjectiveTo characterise patients with and without prevalent hypertension and COVID-19 and to assess adverse outcomes in both inpatients and outpatients.Design and settingThis is a retrospective cohort study using 15 healthcare databases (primary and secondary electronic healthcare records, insurance and national claims data) from the USA, Europe and South Korea, standardised to the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership common data model. Data were gathered from 1 March to 31 October 2020.ParticipantsTwo non-mutually exclusive cohorts were defined: (1) individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 (diagnosed cohort) and (2) individuals hospitalised with COVID-19 (hospitalised cohort), and stratified by hypertension status. Follow-up was from COVID-19 diagnosis/hospitalisation to death, end of the study period or 30 days.OutcomesDemographics, comorbidities and 30-day outcomes (hospitalisation and death for the ‘diagnosed’ cohort and adverse events and death for the ‘hospitalised’ cohort) were reported.ResultsWe identified 2 851 035 diagnosed and 563 708 hospitalised patients with COVID-19. Hypertension was more prevalent in the latter (ranging across databases from 17.4% (95% CI 17.2 to 17.6) to 61.4% (95% CI 61.0 to 61.8) and from 25.6% (95% CI 24.6 to 26.6) to 85.9% (95% CI 85.2 to 86.6)). Patients in both cohorts with hypertension were predominantly >50 years old and female. Patients with hypertension were frequently diagnosed with obesity, heart disease, dyslipidaemia and diabetes. Compared with patients without hypertension, patients with hypertension in the COVID-19 diagnosed cohort had more hospitalisations (ranging from 1.3% (95% CI 0.4 to 2.2) to 41.1% (95% CI 39.5 to 42.7) vs from 1.4% (95% CI 0.9 to 1.9) to 15.9% (95% CI 14.9 to 16.9)) and increased mortality (ranging from 0.3% (95% CI 0.1 to 0.5) to 18.5% (95% CI 15.7 to 21.3) vs from 0.2% (95% CI 0.2 to 0.2) to 11.8% (95% CI 10.8 to 12.8)). Patients in the COVID-19 hospitalised cohort with hypertension were more likely to have acute respiratory distress syndrome (ranging from 0.1% (95% CI 0.0 to 0.2) to 65.6% (95% CI 62.5 to 68.7) vs from 0.1% (95% CI 0.0 to 0.2) to 54.7% (95% CI 50.5 to 58.9)), arrhythmia (ranging from 0.5% (95% CI 0.3 to 0.7) to 45.8% (95% CI 42.6 to 49.0) vs from 0.4% (95% CI 0.3 to 0.5) to 36.8% (95% CI 32.7 to 40.9)) and increased mortality (ranging from 1.8% (95% CI 0.4 to 3.2) to 25.1% (95% CI 23.0 to 27.2) vs from 0.7% (95% CI 0.5 to 0.9) to 10.9% (95% CI 10.4 to 11.4)) than patients without hypertension.ConclusionsCOVID-19 patients with hypertension were more likely to suffer severe outcomes, hospitalisations and deaths compared with those without hypertension.