IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i6p3597-d773936.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

COVID-19 Disease Burden Related to Social Vulnerability and Comorbidities: Challenges to Tuberculosis Control

Author

Listed:
  • Yeo Wool Lee

    (Department of Preventive Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul 02841, Korea
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Jeong Yeon Seon

    (Department of Preventive Medicine, Kyung Hee University College of Medicine, Seoul 02447, Korea
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Seung Heon Lee

    (Division of Pulmonary, Sleep and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Korea University Ansan Hospital, Ansan-si 15355, Korea)

  • In Hwan Oh

    (Department of Preventive Medicine, Kyung Hee University College of Medicine, Seoul 02447, Korea)

Abstract

Purpose: The first coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spike and subsequent pandemic in South Korea were rapid and disruptive. Government response measures for disadvantaged groups against infectious disease should be prioritized based on evidence and affordability. We investigated whether COVID-19 infection, intensive care unit (ICU) care, and mortality from COVID-19 are related to social and medical vulnerability, including tuberculosis (TB). Patients and Methods: Using the National Health Insurance Service COVID-19 database in South Korea, we analyzed 129,128 patients, including controls, from 1 January to 30 May 2020, during the early stage of the COVID-19 epidemic. The relationship between health insurance premiums (representing socioeconomic status), the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) score for the severity of the underlying disease, and additional TB diagnosis was analyzed using the chi-square test and logistic regression. Results: For the demographics, 3244 out of 51,783 men (6.3%) and 4836 out of 77,345 women (6.3%) were infected with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). COVID-19 infection, ICU care, and mortality were related to older age ( p < 0.001) and lower health insurance premium levels ( p < 0.05). Regarding the CCI score, the CCI score, COVID-19 infection, and mortality increased ( p < 0.0001). In terms of premium level, the highest group showed a lower risk of infection (OR 0.52, 0.48-0.57, p = 0.004), ICU care (OR 0.59, 0.46-0.75, p < 0.001), and mortality (OR 0.51, 0.32-0.78, p = 0.016) than the medical aid group. TB was related to ICU care for COVID-19 (OR 4.27, 1.27-14.38, p = 0.018). Conclusion: In the early epidemic, SARS-CoV-2 infection, ICU admission, and mortality from COVID-19 increased in socioeconomically and physically vulnerable groups. However, the relationship between tuberculosis, COVID-19 and mortality was not definite because of the possible under-reporting of TB cases and the relatively small number of TB patients.

Suggested Citation

  • Yeo Wool Lee & Jeong Yeon Seon & Seung Heon Lee & In Hwan Oh, 2022. "COVID-19 Disease Burden Related to Social Vulnerability and Comorbidities: Challenges to Tuberculosis Control," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-10, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:6:p:3597-:d:773936
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/6/3597/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/6/3597/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:6:p:3597-:d:773936. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.