Association of Anemia and COVID-19 in Hospitalized Patients

Abstract

Aim: COVID-19 is a major threat to public health worldwide. A large proportion of COVID-19 patients is proved to develop anemia. Herein, we investigate the association between anemia and severe pneumonia. Materials & methods: 137 of COVID-19-confirmed patients admitted to Wuhan Union Hospital (Wuhan, China) from 13 February to 17 March 2020 were included. Their clinical characteristics and laboratory data were studied, and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed. Results: The anemic patients were less likely to develop fever in the early stage of COVID-19. Elevated IL-6 levels were found in anemic COVID-19 patients compared with those without anemia. COVID-19 patients with anemia had an 8.2 times greater possibility of developing severe pneumonia compared with their counterparts without anemia. Conclusion: This study comprehensively describes the clinical characteristics of anemic patients with ordinary, severe and critical COVID-19 and demonstrates the close relationship between the anemia and severe COVID-19.

Keywords:

• anemia
• COVID-19 and blood oxygen levels
• hemoglobin

Acknowledgments

The authors thank their colleagues in the Department of Radiology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, for generously helping with the collection of medical records.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Availability of data and materials

All data and materials can be acquired from the corresponding author.

Ethical conduct of research

This study was approved by the Wuhan Union Hospital of Huazhong University of Science and Technology Institutional Review Board and informed consent were waived.