Early insights of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Veterans’ Affairs spinal cord injury and disorders population

Study design Retrospective cohort. Objectives The primary outcome of the study was to identify patient characteristics associated with a positive COVID-19 test. The secondary outcome was to identify patient characteristics associated with mortality from COVID-19. Setting Veterans Health Administration (VHA) National Spinal Cord Injury and Disorders (SCI) Registry, created by the National Spinal Cord Injury and Disorders SCI Program Office in March 2020. Methods Data was analyzed in the form of descriptive statistics and then subsequent regression analysis was performed. Results A total of 4,562 persons with SCI were tested for COVID-19 between March and July 2020, and 290 were positive. The study found that African Americans had increased odds of testing positive for COVID-19 (OR 1.53 (1.18–2.00), p