Factors associated with readmission to the Emergency Department in a cohort of COVID-19 hospitalized patients Romero Duarte, Álvaro Rivera Izquierdo, Mario Láinez Ramos-Bossini, Antonio Jesús Redruello Guerrero, Pablo Cárdenas Cruz, Antonio COVID-19 Symptoms Emergency Hospitalization Post-discharge This work was supported by the 'Artificial Intelligence for the diagnosis and prognosis of COVID-19' project (CV20-29480), funded by the Consejeria de Transformacion Economica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades, Junta de Andalucia, and the FEDER funds. We acknowledge the Faculty of Medicine, University of Granada, for the successful organization of the final degree projects, since this work was designed and conducted during the project of Alvaro Romero-Duarte. We also acknowledge all the healthcare workers from the Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, San Cecilio University Hospital for their restless commitment during the pandemic of COVID-19 and their continuous efforts for investigating and communicating their results to the scientific community. Finally, we thank the SEMERGEN-UGR Chair of Teaching and Research in Family Medicine for being an example of support and encouragement in Primary Care research. Introduction: The aim of this study was to describe the symptomatology and main factors associated with readmission to the Emergency Department (ED) in COVID-19 patients discharged from hospital during the first wave of the pandemic at the San Cecilio University Hospital, Granada, Spain. Methods: An observational longitudinal study was conducted in a cohort of 441 patients admitted to our hospital with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from 1 March to 15 April 2020. Patients were followed up through medical records 6 months after discharge. Sociodemographic, clinical and symptomatologic variables were collected. Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed. Results: The mean age of patients in the cohort was 66.4 years (s = 15.3), with 55.1% men. In-hospital mortality was 18.1%. The presence of persistent symptomatology was high (64.5%), especially respiratory (53.2%), systemic (46.3%) and neurological (31.0%). A total of 75 (20.8%) patients were readmitted to the ED during the 6 months following hospital discharge. The main factors associated with readmission to the ED were polymedication (P = 0.031), living in a care home (P = 0.014), fever (P = 0.047), general malaise (P < 0.001), thoracic pain (P < 0.001), headache (P = 0.012), hematological symptoms (P = 0.011), nephrological symptoms (P = 0.047), depressive symptoms (P = 0.009), syncope or hypotension (P = 0.006) and superinfection (P = 0.018). After multivariate adjustment analysis, thoracic pain (OR: 4.45, 95% CI: 1.88– 10.52), general malaise and hematological symptoms (OR: 3.95, 95% CI: 1.12–13.89) remained as risk factors. Conclusions: The presence of persistent symptomatology after hospital discharge in our cohort was common and varied. Polymedication and living in a care home made up the most vulnerable profile of COVID-19 patients for returning to the ED. Thoracic pain, general malaise and hematological symptoms were identified as potential markers of severity, along with others predictors. These findings might be useful for optimizing follow-up strategies. Future studies conducted in other geographical areas are necessary to corroborate our results. 2022-02-09T11:35:23Z 2022-02-09T11:35:23Z 2022-01-08 journal article Álvaro Romero-Duarte... [et al.]. Factors associated with readmission to the Emergency Department in a cohort of COVID-19 hospitalized patients. Signa Vitae. 2022. 18(1);47-54. DOI:[10.22514/sv.2021.106] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/72748 10.22514/sv.2021.106 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ open access Atribución 3.0 España MRE Press