TY - JOUR T1 - Characteristics and outcomes of patients with COVID-19 admitted to hospital and intensive care in the first phase of the pandemic in Canada: a national cohort study JF - CMAJ Open JO - CMAJ SP - E181 LP - E188 DO - 10.9778/cmajo.20200250 VL - 9 IS - 1 AU - Srinivas Murthy AU - Patrick M. Archambault AU - Anika Atique AU - François Martin Carrier AU - Matthew P. Cheng AU - Cassidy Codan AU - Nick Daneman AU - William Dechert AU - Sarah Douglas AU - Kirsten M. Fiest AU - Robert Fowler AU - Geraldine Goco AU - Yusing Gu AU - Anne-Marie Guerguerian AU - Richard Hall AU - Jimmy M. Hsu AU - Ari Joffe AU - Philippe Jouvet AU - Laurel Kelly AU - Michelle E. Kho AU - Rebecca J. Kruisselbrink AU - Deepali Kumar AU - Demetrios James Kutsogiannis AU - François Lamontagne AU - Todd C. Lee AU - Kusum Menon AU - Heather O’Grady AU - Katie O’Hearn AU - Daniel H. Ovakim AU - Scott G. Pharand AU - Tyler Pitre AU - Riley Reel AU - Brenda Reeve AU - Oleksa Rewa AU - David Richardson AU - Asgar Rishu AU - Gyan Sandhu AU - Shirley Sarfo-Mensah AU - Ellen Shadowitz AU - Wendy Sligl AU - Joshua Solomon AU - Henry T. Stelfox AU - Ashleigh Swanson AU - Hubert Tessier-Grenier AU - Jennifer L.Y. Tsang AU - Gordon Wood A2 - , Y1 - 2021/01/01 UR - http://www.cmajopen.ca/content/9/1/E181.abstract N2 - Background: Clinical data on patients admitted to hospital with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) provide clinicians and public health officials with information to guide practice and policy. The aims of this study were to describe patients with COVID-19 admitted to hospital and intensive care, and to investigate predictors of outcome to characterize severe acute respiratory infection.Methods: This observational cohort study used Canadian data from 32 selected hospitals included in a global multisite cohort between Jan. 24 and July 7, 2020. Adult and pediatric patients with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 who received care in an intensive care unit (ICU) and a sampling of up to the first 60 patients receiving care on hospital wards were included. We performed descriptive analyses of characteristics, interventions and outcomes. The primary analyses examined in-hospital mortality, with secondary analyses of the length of hospital and ICU stay.Results: Between January and July 2020, among 811 patients admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of COVID-19, the median age was 64 (interquartile range [IQR] 53–75) years, 495 (61.0%) were men, 46 (5.7%) were health care workers, 9 (1.1%) were pregnant, 26 (3.2%) were younger than 18 years and 9 (1.1%) were younger than 5 years. The median time from symptom onset to hospital admission was 7 (IQR 3–10) days. The most common symptoms on admission were fever, shortness of breath, cough and malaise. Diabetes, hypertension and cardiac, kidney and respiratory disease were the most common comorbidities. Among all patients, 328 received care in an ICU, admitted a median of 0 (IQR 0–1) days after hospital admission. Critically ill patients received treatment with invasive mechanical ventilation (88.8%), renal replacement therapy (14.9%) and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (4.0%); 26.2% died. Among those receiving mechanical ventilation, 31.2% died. Age was an influential predictor of mortality (odds ratio per additional year of life 1.06, 95% confidence interval 1.03–1.09).Interpretation: Patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 commonly had fever, respiratory symptoms and comorbid conditions. Increasing age was associated with the development of critical illness and death; however, most critically ill patients in Canada, including those requiring mechanical ventilation, survived and were discharged from hospital. ER -