Severity Outcomes among Adult Patients with Primary Immunodeficiency and COVID-19 Seen in Emergency Departments, United States, April 2020–August 2021

Abstract

Primary immunodeficiencies (PIs) are a group of diseases that increase susceptibility to infectious diseases. Few studies have examined the relationship between PI and COVID-19 outcomes. In this study, we used Premier Healthcare Database, which contains information on inpatient discharges, to analyze COVID-19 outcomes among 853 adult PI and 1,197,430 non-PI patients who visited the emergency department. Hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), and death had higher odds in PI patients than in non-PI patients (hospitalization aOR: 2.36, 95% CI: 1.87–2.98; ICU admission aOR: 1.53, 95% CI: 1.19–1.96; IMV aOR: 1.41, 95% CI: 1.15–1.72; death aOR: 1.37, 95% CI: 1.08–1.74), and PI patients spent on average 1.91 more days in the hospital than non-PI patients when adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, and chronic conditions associated with severe COVID-19. Of the largest four PI groups, selective deficiency of the immunoglobulin G subclass had the highest hospitalization frequency (75.2%). This large study of United States PI patients provides real-world evidence that PI is a risk factor for adverse COVID-19 outcomes.