Association between encephalopathy and clinical outcomes of COVID-19: Findings from the Philippine CORONA Study

This study aimed to determine whether encephalopathy is associated with such COVID-19 outcomes as disease severity, mortality, respiratory failure, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, duration of ventilator dependence, and length of ICU and hospital stay.

We performed a subgroup analysis comparing outcomes in patients with and without encephalopathy, based on data from a nationwide retrospective cohort study among adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at 37 hospital sites in the Philippines. The patient outcomes included for analysis were disease severity, mortality, respiratory failure, ICU admission, duration of ventilator dependence, and length of ICU and hospital stay.

Of a total of 10881 COVID-19 admissions, 622 patients had encephalopathy. The adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) for mortality among mild and severe cases were 9.26 and 1.63 times greater (P<.001), respectively, in the encephalopathy group compared to the no-encephalopathy group. Encephalopathy was associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19 (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 7.95; P<.001), respiratory failure (aHR: 5.40; P<.001), longer hospital stays (aOR: 1.36; P<.001), and admission to the ICU (aOR: 4.26; P<.001). We found no sufficient evidence that encephalopathy was associated with length of ICU stay (aOR: 1.11; P=.522) or duration of ventilator dependence (aOR: 0.88; P=.428).

Encephalopathy was associated with COVID-19 severity, mortality, respiratory failure, ICU admission, and longer hospital stays.