A research letter published online in CHEST on June 6 by Lieberman-Cribbin W. et al noted that among the 11,405 patients within the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City who had a COVID-19 related hospital encounter, “asthma was not associated with a higher risk of mortality.” The authors also noted a low prevalence of asthma in the Mount Sinai Health System COVID-19 registry. The authors explain that there are limitations to their analysis: “asthma was self-reported, and information on treatments prior to admission, including inhaled or oral corticosteroids, was not available.” They suggest that further research is needed on the role of asthma and asthma medications in individual response to COVID-19.
On June 26, in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Killerby et al shared an analysis of data from 220 hospitalized and 311 non-hospitalized COVID-19 adult patients from six metropolitan Atlanta hospitals and associated clinics. Risk factors associated with hospitalization included older age, Black race, lack of insurance, male sex, smoking and obesity. Of note was that chronic respiratory disease was not a risk factor.