Our findings further support the importance of physical activity in the management of COPD across the care continuum. Although it is possible that lower physical activity is a reflection of worse disease, promoting and supporting physical activity is a promising strategy to reduce the risk of readmission.

Patients hospitalized with acute exacerbation of COPD generally receive adequate hospital care, but there may be opportunities to improve care pharmacologically and with smoking cessation counseling and vaccination during and after hospitalization.

Key Points Question What is the real-world effectiveness of a 12-month community-based physical activity (PA) coaching intervention on reducing all-cause acute care use and death in patients with a history of a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbation? Findings In this multisite, randomized clinical trial that included a population-based sample of 2707 patients with COPD, 321 of 1358 patients participated in the PA coaching intervention and increased PA significantly, but there were no significant differences in the all-cause primary outcome (compostite measure of all-cause hospitalizations, observation stays, emergency department visits, and death) at 12 months. Meaning Most patients with a COPD exacerbation did not engage in PA, and the limited PA did not lead to significant benefit in 12-month health care use.

Objective Develop and validate a risk score using variables available during an Emergency Department (ED) encounter to predict adverse events among patients with suspected COVID-19. Methods A retrospective cohort study of adult visits for suspected COVID-19 between March 1 – April 30, 2020 at 15 EDs in Southern California. The primary outcomes were death or respiratory decompensation within 7-days. We used least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) models and logistic regression to derive a risk score. We report metrics for derivation and validation cohorts, and subgroups with pneumonia or COVID-19 diagnoses. Results 26,600 ED encounters were included and 1079 experienced an adverse event. Five categories (comorbidities, obesity/BMI ≥ 40, vital signs, age and sex) were included in the final score. The area under the curve (AUC) in the derivation cohort was 0.891 (95% CI, 0.880–0.901); similar performance was observed in the validation cohort (AUC = 0.895, 95% CI, 0.874–0.916). Sensitivity ranging from 100% (Score 0) to 41.7% (Score of ≥15) and specificity from 13.9% (score 0) to 96.8% (score ≥ 15). In the subgroups with pneumonia ( n = 3252) the AUCs were 0.780 (derivation, 95% CI 0.759–0.801) and 0.832 (validation, 95% CI 0.794–0.870), while for COVID-19 diagnoses ( n = 2059) the AUCs were 0.867 (95% CI 0.843–0.892) and 0.837 (95% CI 0.774–0.899) respectively. Conclusion Physicians evaluating ED patients with pneumonia, COVID-19, or symptoms suspicious for COVID-19 can apply the COVAS score to assist with decisions to hospitalize or discharge patients during the SARS CoV-2 pandemic.

As for MERS Co-V infections, underlying comorbidities impacted the clinical outcomes of OC43 infections.