A most recent survey from the National Health and Nutrition Examination found that 4 external health factors probably lead to the majority numbers of hospitalizations due to COVID-19.
Study Finds Four Factors Lead To Most COVID-19 Hospitalizations
Based on their estimation, the researchers said that roughly around 63.5% of adults among 906,849 hospitalizations as of November in the U.S had either one of these conditions before they got infected with the pandemic.
The authors of the survey said that among the total case of hospitalizations, 30% were related to obesity, 26% of high blood pressure, 21% of diabetes, 12% to heart failure.
These all figures suggest approximately two-third of the hospital cases are due to these conditions. Experts said that these people could avoid being hospitalized unless they had any of such conditions.
According to the estimation of the authors, 11.1% of hospitalizations could have been prevented if they had a 10% reduction of these conditions.
The researchers said that they believe it is important to improve overall health and reduce the risk of critical conditions with the pandemic. More efforts should be done in promoting healthy lifestyle measures to achieve this.
Dariush Muzaffarian, the senior author and an expert from the Tufts University said that he feels it sad as the pandemic has been around for a complete year in the whole world with million numbers of deaths and hospitalizations, and still not addressed with any of the major ways to prevent such severe outcomes.
The researchers reached their findings and roughly calculated the number and proportion of hospitalization due to COVID-19 in the country which could have been avoided, through mathematical simulation.
Data from major health centers in the country were also collected for the research. These data were from a study of factors associated with the total number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19.
Apart from it, data from CDC’s COVID-NET system and the COVID Tracking Project were also collected for the estimation of hospital cases by population.
The study also found that the factors like race/ ethnicity and age are connected with the hospitalizations due to COVID-19 as a result of these four conditions.
The study authors clarify this by showing their data that roughly around 8% of hospitalizations of COVID-19 were among those who are under 50 years of age were struggling with diabetes. However, among those who are 65 years of age and more, 29% of hospitalizations were held after the pandemic. Actress various age groups, obesity was a major reason which brought a negative impact on hospitalizations after the pandemic.
In another example, the researchers said that among Black patients, all four conditions were attributed to any age which resulted in hospitalization after getting infected with COVID-19, at a rate that is higher than that of White patients.
In this case, the total hospitalizations among people of 65 years and old with diabetes, 25% were among Whites, 32% among Blacks, and 34% among Hispanics.
Hospitalizations were at the highest among Blacks when all the four factors are counted together, whereas the Hispanics come at second place just before Whites.