Perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects of the COVID-19 outbreak is determining your “risk profile.” Am I at at high or low risk of getting the disease? What are the likely outcomes if I do become sick? Giving the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, and pandemics generally, there is a scarcity of data available, particularly in real time. In addition, it is hard to assess the quality of the data that is available and to factor in trends. A set of data points that may help an individual understand his or her “risk profile” are COVID-19 hospitalization rates.

A recent (April 2020) study by a team of researchers at Northwell Health, the largest health system in New York State, was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The study looked at approximately 6,000 hospitalizations for COVID-19 that occurred in the Northwell system between March 1^st and April 4^th. As reported in JAMA, the researchers uncovered several comorbidities as key factors in the acuity of COVID-19 that led to hospitalizations.

The three most common comorbidities were:

1. Hypertension (high blood pressure): 57 %.
2. Obesity: 41 %.
3. Diabetes: 34%.

A summary of the study can be found at https://feinstein.northwell.edu/news/the-latest/largest-covid-19-study-of-hospitalized-patients-in-us-links-comorbidities-to-acuity.

A second COVID-19 hospitalization data set is collected by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET). The network conducts population-based surveillance for laboratory-confirmed COVID-19-associated hospitalizations of both children (less than 18 years) and adults. Currently, COVID-NET incorporates data from 14 states the population of which collectively account for approximately 10% of the US population.

COVID-NET reports the top four comorbidities with respect to adult hospitalizations with COVID-19 as of May 2, 2029 as:

1. Hypertension (high blood pressure): 59.9%.
2. Obesity: 49.8%.
3. Metabolic disease (diabetes): 41.5%.
4. Cardiovascular disease:  34.5%.

A copy of the Selected Underlying Medical Conditions for May 2, 2020 can be found at https://excelsioradvisory.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/COVID-NET_UnderlyingMedicalConditionsImage.png. Source: COVID-NET: COVID-19-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. WEBSITE. Accessed on May 9, 2020.

COVID-NET data is updated weekly and is subject to revision. Because it is “live” data it is useful in trending analysis.

The most recent COVID-NET data can be found at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covid-net/purpose-methods.html.