{"doi":"10.1371/journal.pone.0263995","title":"Predictors of life-threatening complications in relatively lower-risk patients hospitalized with COVID-19","abstract":"Older individuals with chronic health conditions are at highest risk of adverse clinical outcomes from COVID-19, but there is widespread belief that risk to younger, relatively lower-risk individuals is negligible. We assessed the rate and predictors of life-threatening complications among relatively lower-risk adults hospitalized with COVID-19. Of 3766 adults hospitalized with COVID-19 to three hospitals in New York City from March to May 2020, 963 were relatively lower-risk based on absence of preexisting health conditions. Multivariable logistic regression models examined in-hospital development of life-threatening complications (major medical events, intubation, or death). Covariates included age, sex, race/ethnicity, hypertension, weight, insurance type, and area-level sociodemographic factors (poverty, crowdedness, and limited English proficiency). In individuals ≥55 years old (n = 522), 33.3% experienced a life-threatening complication, 17.4% were intubated, and 22.6% died. Among those <55 years (n = 441), 15.0% experienced a life-threatening complication, 11.1% were intubated, and 5.9% died. In multivariable analyses among those ≥55 years, age (OR 1.03 [95%CI 1.01-1.06]), male sex (OR 1.72 [95%CI 1.14-2.64]), being publicly insured (versus commercial insurance: Medicare, OR 2.02 [95%CI 1.22-3.38], Medicaid, OR 1.87 [95%CI 1.10-3.20]) and living in areas with relatively high limited English proficiency (highest versus lowest quartile: OR 3.50 [95%CI 1.74-7.13]) predicted life-threatening complications. In those <55 years, no sociodemographic factors significantly predicted life-threatening complications. A substantial proportion of relatively lower-risk patients hospitalized with COVID-19 experienced life-threatening complications and more than 1 in 20 died. Public messaging needs to effectively convey that relatively lower-risk individuals are still at risk of serious complications.","journal":"PLoS ONE","year":2022,"id":277544,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":7,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9505,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":949607,"name":"Cameron J. Hogan","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":228351,"name":"Mangala Rajan","orcid":"0000-0001-6129-6683","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":279297,"name":"Martin T. Wells","orcid":"0000-0002-9750-9529","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":228354,"name":"Monika M. Safford","orcid":"0000-0002-3060-0563","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":318728,"name":"Laura C. Pinheiro","orcid":"0000-0002-6920-8526","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":949159,"name":"Arnab K. Ghosh","orcid":"0000-0002-5887-3301","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":298227,"name":"Justin J. Choi","orcid":"0000-0003-3335-2750","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":949608,"name":"Clare A. Burchenal","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":949160,"name":"Pooja Shah","orcid":"0000-0002-2515-7739","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":716603,"name":"Martin F. Shapiro","orcid":"0000-0003-1879-5430","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":486121,"name":"Christopher González","orcid":"0000-0003-2916-4175","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":28,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:28:39.226969Z","pmid":"35167610","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}