Effect of race and ethnicity on in-hospital mortality in patients with COVID-2019

Abstract

Objective: To identify differences in shortterm outcomes of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) according to various racial/ethnic groups. Design: Analysis of Cerner de-identified COVID-19 dataset. Setting: A total of 62 health care facilities. Participants: The cohort included 49,277 adult COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized from December 1, 2019 to November 13, 2020. Methods: We compared patients' age, gender, individual components of Charlson and Elixhauser comorbidities, medical complications, use of do-not-resuscitate, use of palliative care, and socioeconomic status between various racial and/or ethnic groups. We further compared the rates of in-hospital mortality and non-routine discharges between various racial and/or ethnic groups. Main Outcome Measures: The primary outcome of interest was in-hospital mortality. The secondary outcome was non-routine discharge (discharge to destinations other than home, such as short-term hospitals or other facilities including intermediate care and skilled nursing homes). Results: Compared with White patients, in-hospital mortality was significantly higher among African American (OR 1.5; 95%CI:1.3-1.6, P