Long-term clinical outcomes and healthcare utilization of sickle cell disease patients with COVID-19: A 2.5-year follow-up study

Objectives: This study investigated whether patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) had elevated risk of worse long-term clinical outcomes and healthcare utilization 2.5 years post-SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: This study consisted of 178 patients with SCD who tested positive for COVID-19 between February 1, 2020 and January 30, 2022 in a major academic health system in New York City. The control cohort consisted of two-to-one matches of 356 SCD patients without a COVID-19 positive test. The last follow-up was July 18, 2022. The primary outcome was mortality. Secondary outcomes were annualized emergency department visits due to pain, pain hospital admission, length of stay due to pain, acute chest syndrome, episodic transfusion, and episodic exchange transfusion. Results: There was no significant difference in mortality between SCD patients with and without COVID-19 (p >.05). There were no significant differences in secondary outcomes between pre- and postpandemic (p >.05). There were also no significant differences in these outcomes between SCD patients with and without COVID-19 (p >.05). SCD care utilization was not significantly associated with COVID-19 hospitalization status (p >.05). Conclusions: SCD patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection incurred no additional risk of worse long-term outcomes compared to matched controls of SCD patients not infected by SARS-CoV-2.