Clinical and Genetic Characteristics of Covid-19 Patients from UK Biobank.

TitleClinical and Genetic Characteristics of Covid-19 Patients from UK Biobank.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2020
AuthorsKolin DA, Kulm S, Elemento O
JournalmedRxiv
Date Published2020 May 05
Abstract

We conducted an analysis of 669 Covid-19 positive patients within the UK Biobank cohort, a prospective cohort including over 500,000 participants. Our analyses led to several findings. We found that black participants in the cohort were over four times more likely to be diagnosed with Covid-19 than white participants. In order to assess for confounding, we produced - to our knowledge - the first multivariable adjusted estimate of the association of racial characteristics with Covid-19. Our adjusted estimates indicated that black participants remained at over threefold increased risk of Covid-19 relative to white participants. Exploratory analyses identified that 22.9% of Covid-19 positive black patients were using either angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers, relative to just 6.7% of all black participants. Our genetic analyses confirmed the finding of a previous report noting an association of blood type A with Covid-19, and we discovered a novel genetic association with HLA DQA1_509 that remained significant even after Bonferroni correction.

DOI10.1101/2020.05.05.20075507
Alternate JournalmedRxiv
PubMed ID32511589
PubMed Central IDPMC7276016
Grant ListP50 CA211024 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
R01 CA194547 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
U24 CA210989 / CA / NCI NIH HHS / United States
UL1 TR002384 / TR / NCATS NIH HHS / United States