Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Mar 12;10(6):1194.
doi: 10.3390/jcm10061194.

Hypertension and Related Comorbidities as Potential Risk Factors for COVID-19 Hospitalization and Severity: A Prospective Population-Based Cohort Study

Ujué Fresán  1   2   3   4 , Marcela Guevara  1   2   3 , Camino Trobajo-Sanmartín  3   5 , Cristina Burgui  1   2   3 , Carmen Ezpeleta  3   5 , Jesús Castilla  1   2   3
Affiliations

Hypertension and Related Comorbidities as Potential Risk Factors for COVID-19 Hospitalization and Severity: A Prospective Population-Based Cohort Study

Ujué Fresán et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

The independent role of hypertension for COVID-19 outcomes in the population remains unclear. We aimed to estimate the independent effect of hypertension and hypertension-related conditions, i.e., cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and chronic kidney diseases, as potential risk factors for COVID-19 hospitalization and severe COVID-19 (i.e., intensive care unit admission or death) in the population. The risk for severe COVID-19 among hospitalized patients was also evaluated. A Spanish population-based cohort of people aged 25-79 years was prospectively followed from March to May 2020 to identify hospitalizations for laboratory-confirmed COVID-19. Poisson regression was used to estimate the adjusted relative risk (aRR) for COVID-19 hospitalization and severe COVID-19 among the whole cohort, and for severe COVID-19 among hospitalized patients. Of 424,784 people followed, 1106 were hospitalized by COVID-19 and 176 were severe cases. Hypertension was not independently associated with a higher risk of hospitalization (aRR 0.96, 95% CI 0.83-1.12) nor severe COVID-19 (aRR 1.12, 95% CI 0.80-1.56) in the population. Persons with cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and chronic kidney diseases were at higher risk for COVID-19 hospitalization (aRR 1.33, 95% CI 1.13-1.58; aRR 1.41, 95% CI 1.04-1.92; and aRR 1.52, 95% CI 1.21-1.91; respectively) and severe COVID-19 (aRR 1.61, 95% CI 1.13-2.30; aRR 1.91, 95% CI 1.13-3.25; and aRR 1.78, 95% CI 1.14-2.76; respectively). COVID-19 hospitalized patients with cerebrovascular diseases were at higher risk of mortality (aRR 1.80, 95% CI 1.00-3.23). The current study shows that, in the general population, persons with cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and chronic kidney diseases, but not those with hypertension only, should be considered as high-risk groups for COVID-19 hospitalization and severe COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19 hospitalization; COVID-19 mortality; SARS-CoV-2; cardiovascular disease; cerebrovascular disease; chronic kidney disease; hypertension.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart of the cohort definition.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report—51. [(accessed on 2 March 2021)];2020 Available online: www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200311-....
    1. Wu Z., McGoogan J.M. Characteristics of and Important Lessons From the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Outbreak in China: Summary of a Report of 72 314 Cases From the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. JAMA. 2020;323:1239–1242. doi: 10.1001/jama.2020.2648. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Emami A., Javanmardi F., Pirbonyeh N., Akbari A. Prevalence of Underlying Diseases in Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Arch. Acad. Emerg. Med. 2020;8:e35. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Yang J., Zheng Y., Gou X., Pu K., Chen Z., Guo Q., Ji R., Wang H., Wang Y., Zhou Y. Prevalence of comorbidities and its effects in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Int. J. Infect. Dis. 2020;94:91–95. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2020.03.017. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Singh A.K., Gillies C.L., Singh R., Singh A., Chudasama Y., Coles B., Seidu S., Zaccardi F., Davies M.J., Khunti K. Prevalence of co-morbidities and their association with mortality in patients with COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Diabetes Obes. Metab. 2020;22:1915–1924. doi: 10.1111/dom.14124. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources