Prevalence of comorbid asthma in Tunisian patients with COVID-19: clinical features and outcomes

Abstract

Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has resulted in around 1 million COVID-19 infection cases and over 29,000 deaths in Tunisia thus far. There is great variability in the prevalence of asthma among patients with COVID-19, but the impact of asthma on patients with COVID-19 is not clear. We sought to describe the clinical features of Tunisian patients with COVID-19 and to compare asthmatic and non-asthmatic patients. Methodology: This retrospective study included 675 Tunisian patients who were hospitalized with COVID-19. Clinical characteristics were collected from medical records. Bivariate analyses and multivariate regression models were used to assess the associations between asthma and the risk of severe symptoms, including death/recovery. Results: The prevalence of asthma in the sample was 14.5%. The results show that asthmatic patients with COVID-19 have significantly less severe symptoms and better outcomes than non-asthmatic patients. Conclusions: Asthma was not found to be associated with higher severity or worse prognosis among patients with COVID-19 in Tunisia.