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. 2022 Jun;11(3):1243-1251.
doi: 10.1007/s40121-022-00623-x. Epub 2022 Apr 27.

Clinical Presentation and Outcome of COVID-19 in a Latin American Versus Spanish Population: Matched Case-Control Study

Rodrigo Alonso #  1 , Ana M Camon #  1 , Celia Cardozo  1 , Laia Albiach  1 , Daiana Agüero  1 , M Angeles Marcos  2 , Juan Ambrosioni  1 , Marta Bodro  1 , Mariana Chumbita  1 , Lorena de la Mora  1 , Nicole Garcia-Pouton  1 , Gerard Dueñas  1 , Marta Hernandez-Meneses  1 , Alexy Inciarte  1 , Genoveva Cuesta  2 , Fernanda Meira  1 , Laura Morata  1 , Pedro Puerta-Alcalde  1 , Sabina Herrera  1 , Montse Tuset  3 , Pedro Castro  4 , Sergio Prieto-Gonzalez  5 , Josep Mensa  1 , José Antonio Martínez  1 , Gemma Sanjuan  1   6 , J M Nicolas  4 , A Del Rio  1 , Jordi Vila  2 , Felipe Garcia  1 , Carolina Garcia-Vidal  1 , Alex Soriano  7 ; Hospital Clinic of Barcelona COVID-19 research group
Collaborators, Affiliations

Clinical Presentation and Outcome of COVID-19 in a Latin American Versus Spanish Population: Matched Case-Control Study

Rodrigo Alonso et al. Infect Dis Ther. 2022 Jun.

Abstract

Introduction: Increased mortality has been reported in the Latin American population. The objective is to compare the clinical characteristics and outcome of Latin American and Spanish populations in a cohort of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 during the first year of the pandemic.

Methods: We retrospectively analysed all the Latin American patients (born in South or Central America) hospitalized in our centre from February 2020 to February 2021 and compared them with an age- and gender-matched group of Spanish subjects. Variables included were demographics, co-morbidities, clinical and analytical parameters at admission and treatment received. The primary outcomes were ICU admission and mortality at 60 days. A conditional regression analysis was performed to evaluate the independent baseline predictors of both outcomes.

Results: From the 3216 patients in the whole cohort, 216 pairs of case-controls (Latin American and Spanish patients, respectively) with same age and gender were analysed. COPD was more frequent in the Spanish group, while HIV was more prevalent in the Latin American group. Other co-morbidities showed no significant difference. Both groups presented with similar numbers of days from symptom onset, but the Latin American population had a higher respiratory rate (21 vs. 20 bpm, P = 0.041), CRP (9.13 vs. 6.22 mg/dl, P = 0.001), ferritin (571 vs. 383 ng/ml, P = 0.012) and procalcitonin (0.10 vs. 0.07 ng/ml, P = 0.020) at admission and lower cycle threshold of PCR (27 vs. 28.8, P = 0.045). While ICU admission and IVM were higher in the Latin American group (17.1% vs. 13% and 9.7% vs. 5.1%, respectively), this was not statistically significant. Latin American patients received remdesivir and anti-inflammatory therapies more often, and no difference in the 60-day mortality rate was found (3.2% for both groups).

Conclusion: Latin American patients with COVID-19 have more severe disease than Spanish patients, requiring ICU admission, antiviral and anti-inflammatory therapies more frequently. However, the mortality rate was similar in both groups.

Keywords: COVID-19; Latin American population; Mortality; Spanish population.

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