Abstract
We tested the hypothesis that patients with sickle cell trait (SCT), a common condition in individuals of African descent, have increased risk and mortality for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the UK Biobank. By June 17, 2020, 1,550 of 7,668 (20%) tested subjects were positive for COVID-19, including 298 (19%) deaths. Blacks had higher rates than Whites for COVID-19 infections (79/222=36% vs. 1,342/7,010=19%, P=1.28×10−9). Among Blacks, SCT carriers did not have higher infection rates (5/15=33%) than non-SCT carriers (74/207=36%), P=1.00. However, SCT carriers had a trend of higher death rates (2/5=40%) than non-SCT carriers (12/74=16%), although not statistically significant (P =0.21).
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Funding Statement
All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf and declare: no support from any organization for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.
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:
The UKB was approved by North West - Haydock Research Ethics Committee (REC reference: 16/NW/0274; IRAS project ID: 200778). UKB data was accessed through a Material Transfer Agreement under Application Reference Number: 50295. This study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. All UKB participants gave their informed consent before any data/samples were collected.
All necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived.
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
Data Availability
All datasets used in this study are accessible through the UKB. For more information about data availability, please contact the corresponding author, Jianfeng Xu, MD, Dr.PH, at jxu{at}northshore.org.