Comorbidities of Primary Care patients with COVID-19 during the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in the Community of Madrid

OBJECTIVES: Recent publications on inpatients with COVID-19 describing their comorbidities and demographic profile exists, but data from large populations requiring only primary care (PC) are scarce. This paper aims to fill this gap and report the prevalence of eight comorbidities (high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, cancer, cardiovascular disease, asthma, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and chronic heart failure) among patients attending PC during the onset of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in the Community of Madrid (CoM), Spain. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This is an observational retrospective study that collects data registered in the CoM between February 25th and May 31st, 2020. Data are divided in two groups: Group-1 (N=339,890) consist of all patients with suspected or proven SARS-CoV-2 infection; and Group-2 is the subgroup (N=48,556, 14.3% of Group-1) of individuals with COVID-19 confirmed by positive RT-PCR test. RESULTS: Comparing Group-1 with Group-2, 339,890/48,556 patients, respectively, the main results were as follows: average age (60.9/69.9 years), presence of at least one comorbidity (33.51%/47.69%), high blood pressure (19.74%/32.74%), diabetes mellitus (7.13%/13.75%), cancer (6.56%/10.6%), cardiovascular disease (4.52%/9.26%), asthma (7.98%/6.56%), chronic kidney disease (1.84%/4.41%), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (2%/4.03%), and chronic heart failure (1.14%/2.77%). High blood pressure and diabetes mellitus were seen to be the most frequent (6.56%/8.38%) association. CONCLUSIONS: Patients requiring PC attention during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the CoM presented with a very high rate of comorbidities, with marked differences among those with or without a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection.