Informatics Approaches Patients with severe or poorly-controlled asthma are at greater risk of hospitalisation with COVID-19

The largest study of its kind – a collaboration between the NIHR Imperial BRC, University of Edinburgh and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – examined the relationship between asthma and COVID-19 and it includes data on almost 80% of adults and more than 75% of 12-17-year-olds in England.

The main findings were that:

• Children and adults with asthma that is severe or poorly controlled are at greater risk of hospitalisation with COVID-19
• children and adults with mild or well controlled asthma are not at an increased risk of becoming seriously ill with COVID-19.

The study included data on almost 80% of adults and more than 75% of 12-17-year-olds in England. The researchers used anonymised information from the 2011 census of England combined with general practice data, hospital statistics and registered deaths between January 2020 and September 2021.