TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kloka, Jan Andreas
A1  - Blum, Lea Valeska
A1  - Old, Oliver
A1  - Zacharowski, Kai
A1  - Friedrichson, Benjamin
T1  - Characteristics and mortality of 561,379 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Germany until December 2021 based on real-life data
T2  - Scientific reports
N2  - The ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is characterized by poor outcome and a high mortality especially in the older patient cohort. Up to this point there is a lack of data characterising COVID-19 patients in Germany admitted to intensive care (ICU) vs. non-ICU patients. German Reimbursement inpatient data covering the period in Germany from January 1st, 2020 to December 31th, 2021 were analyzed. 561,379 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19. 24.54% (n = 137,750) were admitted to ICU. Overall hospital mortality was 16.69% (n = 93,668) and 33.36% (n = 45,947) in the ICU group. 28.66% (n = 160,881) of all patients suffer from Cardiac arrhythmia and 17.98% (n = 100,926) developed renal failure. Obesity showed an odds-ratio ranging from 0.83 (0.79–0.87) for WHO grade I to 1.13 (1.08–1.19) for grade III. Mortality-rates peaked in April 2020 and January 2021 being 21.23% (n = 4539) and 22.99% (n = 15,724). A third peak was observed November and December 2021 (16.82%, n = 7173 and 16.54%, n = 9416). Hospitalized COVID-19 patient mortality in Germany is lower than previously shown in other studies. 24.54% of all patients had to be treated in the ICU with a mortality rate of 33.36%. Congestive heart failure was associated with a higher risk of death whereas low grade obesity might have a protective effect on patient survival. High admission numbers are accompanied by a higher mortality rate.
KW  - Epidemiology
KW  - Medical research
Y1  - 2022
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/69477
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-694776
SN  - 2045-2322
N1  - Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.
N1  - This study was supported by internal institutional research funds from the Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care and Pain Therapy, University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe University, Frankfurt Germany.
N1  - Data availability: 
The German Institute for Hospital Remuneration System (InEK) supports hospitals and health insurance funds as well as their associations in the introduction and continuous further development of the German-DRG system in accordance with the Krankenhausfinanzierungsgesetz (KHG; Hospital Financing Act). Since 2020, access to these data has been possible during the year. For this observational study, we used publicly accessible performance data provided by InEK. Since the register data were anonymized, the Ethics Committee of the University Hospital Frankfurt waived the need for an Ethical approval (Chair: Prof. Dr. Harder, Ref: 2022-766).
VL  - 12
IS  - art. 11116
SP  - 1
EP  - 9
PB  - Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature
CY  - [London]
ER  -