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Comparative Study
. 2021 May:194:19-24.
doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2021.02.019. Epub 2021 Mar 6.

Just a bad flu? Tackling the "infodemic" in Ireland through a comparative analysis of hospitalised cases of COVID-19 and influenza

K Beatty  1 , V Hamilton  2 , P M Kavanagh  3
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Just a bad flu? Tackling the "infodemic" in Ireland through a comparative analysis of hospitalised cases of COVID-19 and influenza

K Beatty et al. Public Health. 2021 May.

Abstract

Objectives: COVID-19 infection has been compared to seasonal influenza as an argument against non-pharmacological population-based infection control measures known as "lockdowns". Our study sought to compare disease severity measures for patients in Ireland hospitalised with COVID-19 against those hospitalised with seasonal influenza.

Study design: This is a retrospective population-based cohort study.

Methods: COVID-19 hospital episodes and seasonal influenza hospital episodes were identified using relevant International Classification of Disease (ICD-10) codes from the Irish national hospitalisation dataset. The occurrences of key metrics of disease severity, length of stay, intensive care admission, ventilatory support, haemodialysis and in-hospital mortality were measured and compared between the two groups using odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), stratified by age.

Results: Hospitalised COVID-19 episodes had a mean length of stay more than twice as long as hospitalised influenza episodes (17.7 days vs 8.3 days). The likelihood of all measures of disease severity was greater in COVID-19 episodes, and the odds of in-hospital mortality were five-fold higher in this group compared with seasonal influenza episodes (OR 5.07, 95% CI 4.29-5.99, P < 0.001). Greater likelihood of increased disease severity was observed for COVID-19 episodes in most age groups.

Conclusions: COVID-19 is a more severe illness than seasonal influenza in hospitalised cohorts. It is imperative that public health professionals ensure that evidence-based advocacy is part of the response to COVID-19 to tackle a dangerous "infodemic" that can undermine public health control measures.

Keywords: COVID-19 [MeSH]; Disease severity [MeSH]; Hospital mortality [MeSH]; Influenza, Human [MeSH]; “Infodemic”.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Mean lengths of stay (LOS) in days per episode of admission for hospitalised COVID-19 and influenza patients, stratified by age group.
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