Clinical course and severity outcome indicators among COVID-19 hospitalized patients in relation to comorbidities distribution: Mexican cohort

Abstract

AbstractIntroductionCOVID-19 affected worldwide, causing to date, around 500,000 deaths. In Mexico, by April 29, the general case fatality was 6.52%, with 11.1% confirmed case mortality and hospital recovery rate around 72%. Once hospitalized, the odds for recovery and hospital death rates depend mainly on the patients’ comorbidities and age. In Mexico, triage guidelines use algorithms and risk estimation tools for severity assessment and decision-making. The study’s objective is to analyze the underlying conditions of patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in Mexico concerning four severity outcomes.Materials and MethodsRetrospective cohort based on registries of all laboratory-confirmed patients with the COVID-19 infection that required hospitalization in Mexico. Independent variables were comorbidities and clinical manifestations.Dependent variables were four possible severity outcomes(a) pneumonia, (b) mechanical ventilation (c) intensive care unit, and (d) death; all of them were coded as binary Results: We included 69,334 hospitalizations of laboratory-confirmed and hospitalized patients to June 30, 2020. Patients were 55.29 years, and 62.61% were male. Hospital mortality among patients aged<15 was 9.11%, 51.99% of those aged >65 died. Male gender and increasing age predicted every severity outcome. Diabetes and hypertension predicted every severity outcome significantly. Obesity did not predict mortality, but CKD, respiratory diseases, cardiopathies were significant predictors.ConclusionObesity increased the risk for pneumonia, mechanical ventilation, and intensive care admittance, but it was not a predictor of in-hospital death. Patients with respiratory diseases were less prone to develop pneumonia, to receive mechanical ventilation and intensive care unit assistance, but they were at higher risk of in-hospital death.