LAUSR

Study Objective: To determine the relationship between socioeconomic status and the severity of COVID-19 infection upon emergency department presentation and overall hospital course. Methods: This was a retrospective chart review of 235 randomly selected patients admitted to a major health care system with a diagnosis of PCR-confirmed COVID-19. Severe disease was defined as the presence of any of the following: respiratory rate ≥30, oxygen saturation ≤89% at rest, requirement of mechanical ventilation, non-respiratory organ failure, septic shock, or death. Presence of these symptoms were assessed for each patient upon initial presentation to the emergency department, and in their overall hospital course. Socioeconomic status was estimated by extrapolating US census data for median household income from each patient’s zip code. Household incomes were then separated into quintiles. The percentage of patients within each quintile who were severe upon presentation and severe overall was determined. Demographic data for each subject was collected and logistic regression was used to control for confounding variables. Results: Of the 235 patients, the income quintiles were as follows: q1: