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Review
. 2021 Oct;27(10):2521-2528.
doi: 10.3201/eid2710.211070.

Characteristics, Comorbidities, and Data Gaps for Coronavirus Disease Deaths, Tennessee, USA

John James Parker, Rany Octaria, Miranda D Smith, Samantha J Chao, Mary Beth Davis, Celia Goodson, Jon Warkentin, Denise Werner, Mary-Margaret A Fill
Review

Characteristics, Comorbidities, and Data Gaps for Coronavirus Disease Deaths, Tennessee, USA

John James Parker et al. Emerg Infect Dis. 2021 Oct.

Abstract

As of March 2021, coronavirus disease (COVID-19) had led to >500,000 deaths in the United States, and the state of Tennessee had the fifth highest number of cases per capita. We reviewed the Tennessee Department of Health COVID-19 surveillance and chart-abstraction data during March 15‒August 15, 2020. Patients who died from COVID-19 were more likely to be older, male, and Black and to have underlying conditions (hereafter comorbidities) than case-patients who survived. We found 30.4% of surviving case-patients and 20.3% of deceased patients had no comorbidity information recorded. Chart-abstraction captured a higher proportion of deceased case-patients with >1 comorbidity (96.3%) compared with standard surveillance deaths (79.0%). Chart-abstraction detected higher rates of each comorbidity except for diabetes, which had similar rates among standard surveillance and chart-abstraction. Investing in public health data collection infrastructure will be beneficial for the COVID-19 pandemic and future disease outbreaks.

Keywords: Black patients; COVID-19; Hispanic patients; SARS-CoV-2; Tennessee; United States; White patients; comorbidities; coronavirus disease; coronaviruses; epidemiology; ethnic groups; mortality rates; population characteristics; public health surveillance; respiratory infections; severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; underlying conditions; viruses; zoonoses.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Data categorization flow diagram for characteristics, comorbidities, and data gaps for coronavirus disease deaths, Tennessee, USA. COVID-19, coronavirus disease; EMS, emergency medical services; TDH, Tennessee Department of Health.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Number of comorbidities by age, race, and type of review for characteristics, comorbidities, and data gaps for coronavirus disease deaths, Tennessee, USA.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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