Observational studyPloS one2022
Severity of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 lineage among hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Belgium.
Observational study in PloS one, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Applications and reporting of causal inference modelling in infectious disease studies: A systematic review.Infectious Disease Modelling · 2026Article
- Impact of tiered restrictions in December 2020 on COVID-19 hospitalisations in England: a synthetic control study.BMJ open · 2025Observational
- Osmolality as a strong predictor of COVID-19 mortality and its possible links to other biomarkers.PloS one · 2025Article
- Genomic monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 variants using sentinel SARI hospital surveillance.Influenza and other respiratory viruses · 2023Article
- Evaluating methodological approaches to assess the severity of infection with SARS-CoV-2 variants: scoping review and applications on Belgian COVID-19 data.BMC infectious diseases · 2022Article
- Review
- Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells attenuate pain and modulate peripheral sodium channel activity in a rat model of complex regional pain syndrome type I.Cell transplantationArticle
- Regular monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 carriage and antibody levels against the virus helped maintain social interactions for Alzheimer's disease residents in a Belgian nursing home during the pandemic.Journal of Alzheimer's disease reportsArticle
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionThe pathogenesis of COVID-19 depends on the interplay between host characteristics, viral characteristics and contextual factors. Here, we compare COVID-19 disease severity between hospitalized patients in Belgium infected with the SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7 and those infected with previously circulating strains.
methodsThe study is conducted within a causal framework to study the severity of SARS-CoV-2 variants by merging surveillance registries in Belgium. Infection with SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 ('exposed') was compared to infection with previously circulating strains ('unexposed') in terms of the manifestation of severe COVID-19, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, or in-hospital mortality. The exposed and unexposed group were matched based on the hospital and the mean ICU occupancy rate during the patient's hospital stay. Other variables identified as confounders in a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) were adjusted for using regression analysis. Sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the influence of selection bias, vaccination rollout, and unmeasured confounding.
resultsWe observed no difference between the exposed and unexposed group in severe COVID-19 disease or in-hospital mortality (RR = 1.15, 95% CI [0.93-1.38] and RR = 0.92, 95% CI [0.62-1.23], respectively). The estimated standardized risk to be admitted in ICU was significantly higher (RR = 1.36, 95% CI [1.03-1.68]) when infected with the B.1.1.7 variant. An age-stratified analysis showed that among the younger age group (≤65 years), the SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7 was significantly associated with both severe COVID-19 progression and ICU admission.
conclusionThis matched observational cohort study did not find an overall increased risk of severe COVID-19 or death associated with B.1.1.7 infection among patients already hospitalized. There was a significant increased risk to be transferred to ICU when infected with the B.1.1.7 variant, especially among the younger age group. However, potential selection biases advocate for more systematic sequencing of samples from hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
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