Mental Mental health and risk of mortality and hospitalization in COVID-19 patients. Results from the PRECOVID Study in Spain

Abstract

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for health care systems globally. The identification of risk factors is crucial when optimizing medical resources for specific vulnerable population groups such as patients with mental disorders, who are specially at risk of poor COVID-19 outcomes. In this retrospective cohort study including 144,957 individuals with confirmed COVID-19 from the PRECOVID Study (Aragon, Spain), anxiety was the most frequent diagnosis. However, some differences were observed by sex: substance abuse, personality disorders and schizophrenia were more frequently diagnosed in men, while eating disorders, depression and mood, anxiety and cognitive disorders were more common among women. The presence of mental illness, specifically schizophrenia spectrum and cognitive disorders in men, and depression and mood disorders, substance abuse, anxiety and cognitive and personality disorders in women, increased the risk of mortality or hospitalization after COVID-19, in addition to other well-known risk factors such as age, morbidity and treatment burden. Identifying vulnerable patient profiles at risk of serious outcomes after COVID-19 based on their mental health status will be crucial to improve their access to the healthcare system and implement targeted public health prevention measures.