COVID-19 Hospitalisation in Portugal, the first year: Results from hospital discharge data

Using Portuguese diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) data we analysed the dynamics of the COVID-19 hospitalisation in Portugal, with the ultimate goal of estimating parameters to be used in COVID-19 mathematical modelling. After processing the data, corresponding to the period between March 2020 and the end of March 2021, an exploratory analysis was conducted, in which the length of stay (LoS) in hospital care, the time until death (TuD), the number of admissions and mortality count were estimated and described with respect to the age and gender of the patients, but also by region of admission and evolution over time. The median and mean of LoS was estimated to be 8 and 12.5 days (IQR:4-15) for non-ICU patients and for ICU patients as 18 and 24.3 days (IQR:11-30). The percentage of patients that, during their hospitalisation, required ICU care was determined to be 10.9%. In-hospital mortality of non-ICU patients (22.6%) and of ICU patients (32.8%) were also calculated. In a visual exploratory analysis we observed that they changed with time, age group, gender and region. Various univariable probability distributions were fitted to the LoS and TuD data, using maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) but also maximum goodness-of-fit estimation (MGE) to obtain the distribution parameters. AMS Subject Classification 62-07,62E07,62F10,62P10 ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This study received financial support from the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia-FCT through project 692 2nd edição Research 4 covid, project name Projeção do Impacte das medidas Não-farmacológicas de Controlo e mitigação da epidemia de COVID-19 em Tempo ReaL (COVID-19 in-CTRL). ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: Comissão de Ética para a Saêde of INSA, I.P. gave ethical approval for this work I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present work are contained in the manuscript