Table 1. Patient characteristics and comorbidities.
ALD: Alcohol liver disease; CLD: Chronic liver disease; COPD: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; CXR: Chest X-ray; DMx1: Diabetes mellitus type 1; DMx2: Diabetes mellitus type 2; Frailty: Dalhousie Frailty (Rockwood) score of 4 or more classified as frail; IHD: Ischemic heart disease; ILD: Interstitial lung disease; IQR: Interquartile range; N: Number of cases; PE: Pulmonary embolism.
| Variable | Swab negative, N = 630 | Swab positive, N = 112 | Total | P-value |
| Age, years | 68.4 (19.7) | 70.9 (17.6) | 68.8 (19.4) | 0.21 |
| Sex, % male (N) | 47.9% (302) | 56.3% (63) | 49.2% (365) | 0.11 |
| Ever smoker, % (N) | 3.9% (24) | 16.5% (18) | 5.8% (42) | <0.001 |
| CXR infiltrates, % (N) | 34.1% (215) | 56.3% (63) | 37.5% (278) | <0.001 |
| Comorbidities | ||||
| Diabetes, % (N) Type 1/Type 2 | 0.5% (3) 2.6% (16) | 0.9% (1) 5.5% (6) | 0.6% (4) 3.1% (22) | 0.48 0.13 |
| Diarrhea, % (N) | 9.1% (57) | 29.5% (33) | 12.1% (90) | <0.001 |
| IHD, % (N) | 17.2% (105) | 29.4% (32) | 19.1% (137) | 0.003 |
| Asthma/COPD/ILD % (N) | 10.3% (63) | 21.1% (23) | 12.0% (86) | 0.001 |
| Hypertension, % (N) | 10.3% (63) | 19.3% (21) | 11.7% (84) | 0.007 |
| Dementia, % (N) | 8.4% (51) | 20.2% (22) | 10.2% (73) | <0.001 |
| Frailty, % (N) | 12.0% (73) | 22.9% (25) | 13.6% (98) | 0.002 |
| ALD-CLD, % (N) | 1.5% (9) | 1.8% (2) | 1.5% (11) | 0.68 |
| Malignancy, % (N) | 2.6% (16) | 14.7% (16) | 4.5% (32) | <0.001 |
| PE, % (N) | 1.0% (6) | 3.7% (4) | 1.4% (10) | 0.051 |
| Lymphocyte count, 109/ L* | 1.12 [0.71-1.68] | 1.04 [0.63-1.5] | 1.12 [0.71-1.66] | 0.27 |
| Lymphocyte count < 1.5x109/ L | 69.8% (440) | 75.0% (84) | 70.6% (524) | 0.27 |