Lower In-Hospital Mortality Rate Reported in Pregnant Women Hospitalized with COVID-19 and Viral Pneumonia

The Annals of Internal Medicine published a new study on May 11, 2021, In-Hospital Mortality in a Cohort of Hospitalized Pregnant and Nonpregnant Patients With COVID-19.

These researchers stated, 'Overall and within multiple subgroups, we found a substantially lower rate of in-hospital mortality in pregnant patients than nonpregnant patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and viral pneumonia.'

This retrospective cohort study of patients in the Premier Healthcare Database, an all-payer data repository that captures 20% of U.S. hospitalizations, included female inpatients aged 15 to 45 years hospitalized from April to November 2020 with COVID-19.

In-hospital death occurred in 0.8% (n = 9) of pregnant patients and 3.5% (n = 340) of nonpregnant patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and viral pneumonia.

The median time from admission to death was 18 days for pregnant patients and 12 days for nonpregnant patients.

Among the subgroup of patients admitted to an intensive care unit, in-hospital mortality was 3.5% (9 of 255) in pregnant patients and 14.9% (283 of 1898) in nonpregnant patients. Among those who received mechanical ventilation, in-hospital death occurred in 8.6% (9 of 105) of pregnant patients and 31.4% (294 of 937) of nonpregnant patients.

A strength of this study is the use of a large database, including patient discharge data from 853 hospitals. It is hospital-based, providing a clearly defined population without the biases of registry-based studies.