Outcomes of COVID-19 hospitalizations in patients with sickle cell disease: A nationwide analysis

Introduction: There is a paucity of data on the outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) in the United States. We examined the outcomes of patients with COVID-19 and SCD. Methods: We utilized the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) to identify the data of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and SCD in 2020 using the International Classification of Disease, Tenth Revision codes. In-hospital outcomes (invasive mechanical ventilation and mortality) were compared between SCD and non-SCD groups. Results: Of the 1 057 550 COVID-19 hospitalizations, 2870 (0.3%) had SCD. The median age of the SCD group was 42 (IQR: 31) vs. 66 (IQR: 23) in the non-SCD group (p <.0001). Patients with SCD were likely to be females (62.02% vs. 37.98%, p <.0001), Blacks (87.81% vs. 12.19%, p <.0001), and in the lowest income quartile (50.62% vs. 11.15%, p <.0001). There was no difference in the outcomes between the two groups. There were increased odds of invasive mechanical ventilation and in-hospital mortality in COVID-19 in Asians, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Blacks (except for in-hospital mortality) compared to Whites. Conclusion: In-hospital mortality and invasive mechanical ventilation outcomes in SCD are comparable to that in non-SCD patients hospitalized with COVID-19.