The COVID-19 Hospitalization Metric in the Pre- and Post-vaccination Eras as a Measure of Pandemic Severity: A Retrospective, Nationwide Cohort Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

COVID-19 hospitalization definitions do not include a disease severity assessment. Thus, we sought to identify a simple and objective mechanism for identifying hospitalized severe cases and to measure the impact of vaccination on trends.

Methods

All admissions to a Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital, where routine screening is recommended, between 3/1/2020-11/22/2021 with SARS-CoV-2 were included. Moderate-to-severe COVID-19 was defined as any oxygen supplementation or any SpO2 <94% between one day before and two weeks after the positive SARS-CoV-2 test. Admissions with moderate-to-severe disease were divided by the total number of admissions, and the proportion of admissions with moderate-to-severe COVID-19 was modelled using a penalized spline in a Poisson regressio

SUBMITTER: Fillmore NR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9021586 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature