Racial Difference in Hospital and Critical Care Admissions andMortality before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the racial difference in hospital and intensive critical care (ICU) admissions and mortality during COVID-19 pandemic compared to the pre-COVID period.
Methods: This was a retrospective observational study.
Results: The racial proportion of hospital admissions was not changed. Either all-cause or non-COVID ICU admission rate increased significantly in White patients (9.7% during vs 8.1% pre-COVID, p<.0001). Non-COVID ICU admission rate increased for Black or African American patients (14.4% during vs 11.0% pre-COVID, p=0.05). For White or Caucasian patients, either all-cause mortality (3.9% during vs 3.0% pre-COVID) or non-COVID mortality (3.8% during vs 3.0% pre-COVID) increased significantly. For Black or African American patients, all-cause mortality increased significantly (3.4% during vs 1.6% pre-COVID, p=.03). Compared to White patients, COVID-19 incidence rate was significantly higher among Asian, Black or African American and Hispanic patients. ICU admission rate and mortality of minority COVID-19 patients were not different from White or Caucasian patients.
Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic did not affect the racial proportion of admissions. The ICU admission rate and mortality did not change for most of races except for White or Caucasian and Black or African American patients and the increase was caused by COVID-19 patients as well as non-COVID patients.