Risk factors predicting disease severity and mortality in coronavirus disease 2019 Saudi Arabian patients

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) became a global pandemic that may be associated with significant associated risk factors.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the factors predisposing risk to death in COVID-19 patients.

This is a retrospective study that presents the demographic, clinical presentation, and laboratory findings on our patients to determine risk factors contributing to their COVID-19 outcome.

We used logistic regression (odds ratios) to examine associations between clinical findings and risk of death in COVID-19 patients. All analyses were done using STATA 15.

A total of 206 COVID-19 patients were investigated, 28 of them died, and 178 survived. Expired patients were older (74.04 ± 14.45 vs. 55.56 ± 18.41 in those who survived) and mainly of male gender (75% vs. 42% in those who survived). The following factors were strong predictors of death: hypertension (OR: 5.48, 95% CI: 2.10-13.59, P < 0.001), cardiac disease (OR: 5.08, 95% CI: 1.88-13.74, P = 0.001), and hospital admission (OR: 39.75, 95% CI: 5.28-299.12, P < 0.001). In addition, blood group B was more frequent in expired patients (OR: 2.27, 95% CI: 0.78-5.95, P = 0.065).

Our work adds to the current knowledge about the factors predisposing to death in COVID-19 patient. In our cohort, expired patients were of older age and male gender plus they were more likely to have hypertension, cardiac disease, and hospital severe disease. These factors might be used to evaluate risk of death in patients recently diagnosed of COVID-19.