Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1446606
17 PATIENT SAFETY & OUTCOMES What data on 120,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations shows about breakthrough cases By Gabrielle Masson F rom June to September 2021, fully vaccinated people with breakthrough COVID-19 accounted for 15 percent of all U.S. COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to data from Peterson's and Kaiser Family Foundation's Health System Tracker. The data is from Cosmos, a HIPAA-defined dataset of more than 120 million patients from more than 140 Epic organiza- tions, including 250 hospitals across all 50 states and data on nearly 10 million admissions. More than 120,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations were examined. Individuals were considered fully vaccinated if they had re- ceived the required dose(s) of a COVID-19 vaccine and were at least 14 days from the single-dose vaccine or the second dose in an mRNA series. Six findings: 1. An overwhelming majority of COVID-19 hospitalizations were among unvaccinated or partially vaccinated people. From June to September 2021, 85 percent of virus hospitalizations were among those not fully vaccinated against COVID-19. 2. Age was highly correlated with breakthrough hospitalizations. The majority of COVID-19 breakthrough hospitalizations were of people 65 and older, while the majority of people not fully vaccinated and hospitalized with COVID-19 were adults ages 18 to 64. Only 10 percent of breakthrough hospitalizations were people under age 50. 3. Compared to the age distribution of fully vaccinated people in the U.S., people 65 and up make up a disproportionately large share of breakthrough hospitalizations. As of Sept. 30, 25 percent of fully vaccinated Americans were 65 and older. In comparison, in the Epic sample, 69 percent of fully vaccinated people hospitalized with breakthrough COVID-19 were 65 and older. 4. A greater share of people hospitalized with a breakthrough COVID-19 case also had at least one comorbidity compared to COVID-19 patients who weren't fully vaccinated. 5. Breakthrough hospitalizations included fewer COVID-related respiratory complications or treatments, suggesting fully vacci- nated patients hospitalized with breakthrough COVID-19 may have been more likely to be hospitalized for unrelated reasons. 6. Fully vaccinated adults hospitalized with COVID-19 had shorter average hospital stays than those who weren't fully vaccinated within the same age group. Among patients over 65, the median COVID-19 hospital stay was 1.1 days shorter for those who were fully vaccinated (5.6 days) than for those not (6.7 days). n More than 700,000 people in the US may have lost sense of smell to COVID-19, study estimates By Erica Carbajal L oss of taste or smell are defining symptoms of COVID-19, and a study published Nov. 18 in JAMA Otolaryngology estimates up to 1.6 million people in the U.S. may experience chronic olfactory problems after their infection. Widespread loss of smell may have profound effects on public health, as it's linked to a decreased quality of life and impaired food intake and can hamper a person's abil- ity to detect harmful gas and smoke, among other conse- quences, researchers said. To estimate the scale of chronic olfactory dysfunction as a result of COVID-19, researchers used national data on new daily cases and studies on the incidence of acute olfactory dysfunction and recovery rates to estimate the number of people in the U.S. who have lost their ability to smell. Based on the lowest estimates, the number of people expected to develop chronic olfactory issues is 170,238. The highest estimates expect 1.6 million people to experi- ence long-term olfactory problems, while the intermediate estimates suggest more than 700,000 people had devel- oped chronic olfactory dysfunction by August 2021. "These data suggest an emerging public health concern of OD and the urgent need for research that focuses on treating COVID-19 COD," researchers said. n Based on the lowest estimates, the number of people expected to develop chronic olfactory issues is 170,238.