Electronic health records reveal that COVID-19 impacted health resources and survival of Basque population

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted worldwide. The Basque Country was one of the regions in Spain most affected by the virus.

In this retrospective study, we took advantage of the Basque Health Service electronic health records data lake of over 20,000 deceased individuals, including 5000 positives for COVID-19, between 2020 and 2022 in Gipuzkoa (Basque Country, Spain).

Comparison between COVID-19-positive and negative individuals’ showed that the prevalence of infections was higher inside nursing homes and COVID-19 promoted a significant rise in hospitalizations, emergency entrances, and ICU admissions. No differences were observed between genders in terms of infections or survival but were detected in health resources and vaccination showed a strong protective effect against the disease.

Our results provided a complete characterization of the impact of COVID-19 on the Basque population, which expands the knowledge of the pandemic on older individuals and the health system. Our study also highlights the benefit of the use of Electronic Health Records in studying human diseases.