Racial and Ethnic Differences in COVID-19 Disease Severity Among US Adults in Health Systems Participating in PCORnet®

Medical Care 2026 Open access

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Authors: Bridget Simon-Friedt, Emilia H. Koumans, Amy K. Feehan, William E. Trick, Christine Draper, Joshua L. Denson, Kshema Nagavedu, Mark Weiner, Sonja A. Rasmussen, Jason Block, Thomas W. Carton, PCORnet® Network Partners
DOI: 10.1097/mlr.0000000000002221
Cited by: 1
References: 45

Abstract

This study analyzed COVID-19 disease severity distributions among different age, racial, and ethnic groups for pre-Omicron and Omicron variant periods from May 2020 to October 2022. Disease severity categories were defined by ICD-10-CM diagnostic codes recorded in the electronic health record in the 7 days preceding and 13 days following the SARS-CoV-2 positive laboratory record (index date) and were grouped into 4 mutually exclusive categories: severe complications, high, moderate, and low disease severity. Low severity was defined as the absence of codes for any of the other categories. Among 1,613,706 included patients, there was a lower prevalence of disease severity during the Omicron variant period across all race and ethnicity groups (P

Fields of Study & Subjects

COVID-19 and healthcare impacts Infection Control and Ventilation COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies

Publication details

Journal / source
Medical Care
Publisher
Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Volume
64
Issue
3S
Pages
S278–S287
Publication date
8 January 2026
Language
EN