Short report PNEUMON
Pneumon 2022;35(4):25
https://doi.org/10.18332/pne/154601
1
INTRODUCTION
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging
evidence from the US and the UK has revealed signifcant
disparities between people belonging to ethnic/racial
minorities and those of White race, with the first being
at higher risk of infection, severe disease and adverse
outcomes
1-4
. Additionally, several studies have shown that
COVID-19 afects disproportionally the migrant population
4,5
,
although relevant research is still limited. So far, the impact
of SARS-CoV-2 infection has not been investigated in
people belonging to ethnic/racial minorities in Greece. Thus,
we aimed to explore the outcomes of COVID-19 patients
hospitalized in a large Greek General Hospital according to
their racial/ethnic origin. We hypothesized that patients
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Research suggests that racial minorities are overrepresented
in the number of COVID-19 related deaths compared to people of White origin.
This is the frst study to assess racial diferences in the clinical characteristics
and outcomes of COVID-19 positive patients, hospitalized in Greece.
METHODS This retrospective, cross-sectional study included 628 COVID-19
hospitalized patients, from 10 September to 31 December 2020. We
compared data concerning gender, age, comorbidities and outcome, between
patients of European and non-European origin. Moreover, we applied logistic
regression in which the outcome, in our case in-hospital death, was assessed
with race, age, sex, and Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) score.
RESULTS In the frst and unadjusted race-only logistic regression model, non-
Europeans (OR=0.057; 95% CI: 0.008–0.411, p=0.005) were less likely than
European patients to die in the hospital. However, controlling for sex, age and
CCI score resulted in non-signifcant diferences.
CONCLUSIONS There are a lot of statistically signifcant diferences between
European and non-European COVID-19 hospitalized patients regarding their
clinical characteristics, with the second presenting a lower hospital mortality
rate, but afer adjusting for age, sex and CCI score, race seems to be not
signifcant.
Published by European Publishing. © 2022 Alexandrou M. et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International
License. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0)
Outcomes of hospitalized COVID-19 patients
belonging to ethnic/racial minorities in Greece
Michaella Alexandrou
1,2
, Stavroula Daskalopoulou
1,3
, Anna-Louiza Haliassou
1,4
, Elefheria Kranidioti
1,5
, Evangelia Margellou
1,6
,
Andreas Panagopoulos
1,5
, Eleni Papageorgiou
1,6
, Artemis Rodopoulou
1
, Georgia Stavropoulou
1,7
, Apostolos Pappas
1,6
, Ioannis
Kalomenidis
1,6
AFFILIATION
1 COVID-19 Unit, National and Kapodistrian
University of Athens, School of Medicine,
Evangelismos Hospital, Athens, Greece
2 1st Department of Critical Care and
Pulmonar Medicine, National and
Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of
Medicine, Evangelismos Hospital, Athens,
Greece
3 5th Department of Internal Medicine,
National and Kapodistrian University of
Athens, School of Medicine, Evangelismos
Hospital, Athens, Greece
4 4th Department of Internal Medicine,
National and Kapodistrian University of
Athens, School of Medicine, Evangelismos
Hospital, Athens, Greece
5 3rd Department of Internal Medicine,
National and Kapodistrian University of
Athens, School of Medicine, Evangelismos
Hospital, Athens, Greece
6 1st Department of Internal Medicine,
National and Kapodistrian University of
Athens, School of Medicine, Evangelismos
Hospital, Athens, Greece
7 Department of Neurology, National and
Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of
Medicine, Evangelismos Hospital, Athens,
Greece
CORRESPONDENCE TO
Michaella Alexandrou. COVID-19 Unit,
National and Kapodistrian University of
Athens, School of Medicine, Evangelismos
Hospital, Ipsilantou 45-47, 10676, Athens,
Greece. E-mail: alexmichaella@yahoo.gr
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-
9549-0748
KEYWORDS
Greece, race, immigrants, COVID-19, SARS-
CoV-2, mortality
Received: 29 April 2022
Revised: 6 September 2022
Accepted: 15 September 2022