Mortality from COVID-19 in Patients with COPD: A US Study in the N3C Data Enclave
Daniel Meza, Basil Khuder, Joseph I. Bailey, Sharon R Rosenberg, Ravi Kalhan, Paul A. Reyfman
Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2), emerged in late 2019 leading to a global pandemic. COVID-19, a cause of severe viral pneumonia, has resulted in over 2.6 million deaths worldwide and over 500,000 deaths in the United States as of February 2021. bservational research suggests that the risk of mortality increases with the presence of comorbidities: obesity, hypertension (HTN), diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM), and chronic lung disease. Over the last 40 years in the United States, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has become the fourth leading cause of death. Pneumonia is associated with an increased risk of hospitalization, intubation, and mortality in people with COPD. iven the increased vulnerability of this population, it is important to understand the risk of COVID-19 related mortality in people with COPD. The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) established the National COVID Cohort Collaboration (N3C), a partnership among 81 academic hubs to share COVID-19 clinical data from electronic health records as part of a platform for answering critical research questions. The N3C compiles data from patients who were tested for COVID-19, or who were symptomatic and highly suspected to have COVID-19. The data obtained from electronic health records include demographics, symptoms, lab test results, procedures, medications, medical conditions, and physical measurements. The data are placed in a cloud-based research environment maintained by NCATS. We used this novel tool to assess the risk of mortality following COVID-19 diagnosis in patients with COPD compared with patients without COPD.