Time between Symptom Onset, Hospitalisation and Recovery or Death: Statistical Analysis of Belgian COVID-19 Patients

Christel Faes, Steven Abrams, Dominique Van Beckhoven, Geert Meyfroidt, Erika Vlieghe, Niel Hens and Belgian Collaborative Group on COVID-19 Hospital Surveillance
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Christel Faes: Data Science Institute (DSI), I-BioStat, Universiteit Hasselt, BE-3500 Hasselt, Belgium
Steven Abrams: Data Science Institute (DSI), I-BioStat, Universiteit Hasselt, BE-3500 Hasselt, Belgium
Dominique Van Beckhoven: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Sciensano, BE-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Geert Meyfroidt: Department and Laboratory of Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospitals Leuven and KU Leuven, Herestraat 49, Box 7003 63, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Erika Vlieghe: Department of General Internal Medicine, Infectious and Tropical Diseases, University Hospital Antwerp, BE-2000 Antwerp, Belgium
Niel Hens: Data Science Institute (DSI), I-BioStat, Universiteit Hasselt, BE-3500 Hasselt, Belgium
Belgian Collaborative Group on COVID-19 Hospital Surveillance: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Sciensano, BE-1050 Brussels, Belgium

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 20, 1-18

Abstract: There are different patterns in the COVID-19 outbreak in the general population and amongst nursing home patients. We investigate the time from symptom onset to diagnosis and hospitalization or the length of stay (LoS) in the hospital, and whether there are differences in the population. Sciensano collected information on 14,618 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 admissions from 114 Belgian hospitals between 14 March and 12 June 2020. The distributions of different event times for different patient groups are estimated accounting for interval censoring and right truncation of the time intervals. The time between symptom onset and hospitalization or diagnosis are similar, with median length between symptom onset and hospitalization ranging between 3 and 10.4 days, depending on the age of the patient (longest delay in age group 20–60 years) and whether or not the patient lives in a nursing home (additional 2 days for patients from nursing home). The median LoS in hospital varies between 3 and 10.4 days, with the LoS increasing with age. The hospital LoS for patients that recover is shorter for patients living in a nursing home, but the time to death is longer for these patients. Over the course of the first wave, the LoS has decreased.

Keywords: COVID-19; length of stay in hospital; symptom onset to hospitalization; truncation and interval-censoring (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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