COVID-19 and Anemia Study

COVID-19 infection is deemed severe when there is a requirement for intensive care unit (ICU) admission and/or mechanical ventilation, or death owing to the illness. The World Health Organization (WHO) has highlighted risk factors that enhance the severity of COVID-19 infection. These risk factors include:

• Obesity
• Smoking
• Alcohol
• Physical inactivity
• Pollution
• Diabetes
• Cardiovascular disease
• Respiratory illness
• Cancer

Recently released research examined that anemia in a COVID-19 infected individual might have an influence on the severity of the illness as well.

Retrospective data was obtained from 784 patients hospitalized to the COVID adult ICU between March and June 2021. Patients were categorized as anemic and non-anemic based on the World Health Organization (WHO) standards. Chi-squared test was done to examine the association of anemia with the patient fatalities. Among the 784 patients, 507 succumbed to COVID-19. Of them, 49.3 percent exhibited varied degrees of anemia. Significant connection of anemia with mortality due to COVID-19 was reported in men and females (P = 0.002106 and P = 0.033071, respectively) and in patients without any other comorbidities except anemia (P = 0.002020). This shows that anemia is independently an essential criterion that has a role in the severity of COVID-19.

This cross-sectional, retrospective analysis of 784 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Jodhpur, Rajasthan demonstrated that anemia on admission was an independent risk factor for COVID-19 infection and that it was predictive of the severity of SARS-CoV-2, that is, mortality. Anemia is a worldwide condition related with the prognosis of many clinical disorders, including diseases with respiratory impairments, such as COVID-19. The research revealed that anemia on admission was independently linked with all-cause mortality in individuals hospitalized with COVID-19. Estimation of hemoglobin on admission may be utilized as a strategy for risk stratification in the forthcoming rounds of COVID-19. Meanwhile, a broad public advice to enhance their hemoglobin may be useful in averting severe COVID-19 infection in the future waves. Additional investigations covering additional laboratory values and therapies received by patients should be the focus of future studies.

Reference

Jha, Manish; Tak, M.L.; Gupta, Rashmi; Sharma, Priyamvada; Rajpurohit, Vikas; Mathur, Prachi; Gaur, Nayanika, Relationship of anemia with COVID-19 deaths: A retrospective cross-sectional study, Journal of Anaesthesiology Clinical Pharmacology: Volume 38 - Issue Suppl 1 - p S115-S119

doi: 10.4103/joacp.joacp_63_22