Burden and prevalence of prognostic factors for severe covid-19 disease in Sweden

Katalin Gemes; Mats Talback; Karin Modig; Anders Ahlbom; Anita Berglund; Maria Feychting; Anthony Matthews

The copyright holder for this preprint . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.08.20057919 doi: medRxiv preprint conditions (diuretics, beta-blockers, ACE inhibitors etc.). [30] However, the data we had available from the Prescribed Drug Register did not include information on these medications. Given hypertension and high blood pressure are precursors of clinical cardiovascular disease, it is likely that those with the most severe disease are captured in our cardiovascular disease estimates. Furthermore, other health agencies around the world (Center for Disease Control, United States; National Health Service, United Kingdom) have suggested additional prognostic factors for severe COVID-19 disease such as chronic kidney disease, liver disease, immunosuppression, and severe obesity. We decided to ground our choice of prognostic factors on recommendations from the World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control to give an overview of factors deemed important by multinational organizations, and as these are likely the guidelines that individuals in Sweden and Europe are currently following.