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Cardiovascular

COVID-19 death risk and comorbidities

Harrison SL, Fazio-Eynullayeva E, Lane DA, et al. · PLoS medicine · 2020

Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC

In 31,461 US adults with COVID-19, older age, male sex, Black race, and several comorbidities including heart disease predicted higher mortality.

Study at a glance

Design
Cohort — Federated US EMR analysis (Jan–May 2020) across 24 organisations
N
N=31461 · Adults with COVID-19 codes or positive tests
Population
US adults with COVID-19 in a multi-organisation federated EMR network
Outcome
Mortality associations with Charlson comorbidities and demographics

Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.

Key findings

Mortality associated with increasing age, male sex, Black vs white race, prior MI, heart failure, dementia, chronic lung, liver, and renal disease, and metastatic solid tumour; common comorbidities included COPD and diabetes.

Methodology

Investigators analysed federated EMR data from 24 US organisations (Jan–May 2020) to relate Charlson comorbidities and demographics to mortality among adults with COVID-19 codes or positive tests.

Limitations

Causal effects of treating comorbidities, hospital vs community severity nuance, and complete ethnicity data (nearly a quarter unknown) remain limited.

How this study connects

Role on claims

Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.

  • SupportsCardiovascular Careconcept

    Multiple studies in this library examine cardiovascular care with empirical patient or population outcomes rather than opinion alone.

    Evidence for the claim as stated.

  • SupportsCardiovascular Careconcept

    Mortality associated with increasing age, male sex, Black vs white race, prior MI, heart failure, dementia, chronic lung, liver, and renal disease, and metastatic solid tumour; common comorbidities included COPD and diabetes.

    Evidence for the claim as stated.

  • SupportsCardiovascular Careconcept

    Effect sizes and settings differ across cardiovascular care studies — digital vs clinic, trial vs observational — so results should not be pooled casually.

    Evidence for the claim as stated.

Open questions

Tensions this paper is part of

From concept pages' “where studies disagree.” Disagreement means the same question; scope means different assays, populations, or outcomes.

Related papers in this topic

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