Risk Factors on the Progression to Clinical Outcomes of COVID-19 Patients in South Korea: Using National Data

Abstract

10–20% of COVID (Corona Virus Disease)-19 cases proceed to a severe stage, and age and the presence of comorbidity increased the risk of death from COVID-19. The identification of risk factors on progression to the severity stages is essential in providing more efficient and suitable management to COVID-19 patients. However, there is insufficient study on risk factors for severity stages of COVID-19 patients. In this study, 2959 confirmed COVID-19 patients were analyzed while using national data, COVID-19 patients Clinical Epidemiological Information provided from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The epidemiological variable, hospital room, periods from confirmation to release, initial symptom and vital signs, underlying comorbidities, and initial blood variables were used to verify the relation with progression to severity stages of COVID-19 and severe COVID-19. The chi-square test, welch test, multiple regression and logistic regression analysis were performed. The ICU (Intensive Care Unit) admission rate of patients having characteristics, such as older age, male, abnormal BMI (Body Mass Index), high heart rate, high body temperature, fever, cough, sputum, sore throat, rhinorrhea, fatigue, dyspnea, change of consciousness, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, chronic artery disease, chronic kidney disease, cancer, dementia, abnormal hemoglobin, abnormal hematocrit, abnormal lymphocyte, abnormal platelets, and abnormal white blood cell were high. The risk factors for severe COVID-19 were older age, shorter hospitalization, abnormal lymphocyte, abnormal platelets, dyspnea, change of consciousness, and dementia. Whereas, significant predictors for progression to severity stages of COVID-19 were older age, longer period from confirmation to release, higher BMI, higher body temperature, abnormal lymphocyte, abnormal platelets, fever, no sore throat, dyspnea, no headache, COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), and dementia. Therefore, classifying patients with a high risk of severe stage of COVID-19 and managing patients by considering the risk factors could be helpful in the efficient management of COVID-19 patients.

Clinical and Laboratory Findings of COVID-19 in High-Altitude Inhabitants of Saudi Arabia

“…Our results agree with a previous study that reported a correlation between smell loss and decreased hospitalization, intubation, and acute respiratory distress syndrome (31). In addition, another study also found that patients with a sore throat had better outcomes than others (32). However, there is no available explanation for these correlations.…”

COPD and the risk of poor outcomes in COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Six studies initially identified in preprint were subsequently excluded since they had not been peer-reviewed and published by 28 th January 2021; additionally, one study that was initially included based on preprint was subsequently removed since the peer-reviewed version did not meet our study's inclusion criteria. In total, 59 studies [20] , [21] , [22] , [23] , [24] , [25] , [26] , [27] , [28] , [29] , [30] , [31] , [32] , [33] , [34] , [35] , [36] , [37] , [38] , [39] , [40] , [41] , [42] , [43] , [44] , [45] , [46] , [47] , [48] , [49] , [50] , [51] , [52] , [53] , [54] , [55] , [56] , [57] , [58] , [59] , [60] , [61] , [62] , [63] , [64] , [65] , [66] , [67] , [68] , [69] , [70] , [71] , [72] , [73] , [74] , [75] , [76] , [77] , [78] were selected for the qualitative synthesis, of which 39[ [23] , [24] , [25] , …”

“…Finally, we examined whether age and sex of the study participants could explain the heterogeneity of results across studies, using meta-regression. Three studies [ 52 , 59 , 73 ] were not included in this analysis due to missing population level age statistics. The mean/median age and percentage of males of studies accounted for 0%, 56.38% and 21.34% of the heterogeneity for hospitalisation, severe COVID-19 and mortality, respectively ( Table 2 ).…”

Development and Validation of a Predictive Model for Severe COVID-19: A Case-Control Study in China

“…COVID-19 presents a wide clinical manifestation, including asymptomatic infection, mild upper respiratory tract illness, and severe viral pneumonia, with respiratory failure. Only a small proportion of the total number of cases progress to a severe condition (∼15-20%); however, ∼40% of patients with severe disease die (2)(3)(4)(5). Although some research has shown that initial therapy with remdesivir or non-invasive positive pressure ventilation (NIPPV) is very efficient for severe cases, there is currently a lack of accepted recommendations for severe patients with regard to individualized treatment (6)(7)(8).…”

“…As the disease progresses further, patients may also experience respiratory failure, acute respiratory distress syndrome, heart failure, metabolic acidosis, and septic shock (11). Besides the well-defined clinical characteristics of COVID-19, previous studies have shown that abnormal laboratory findings and cytokine levels are often associated with disease progression, including coagulation-related markers such as D-dimer and fibrinogen (FIB), neutrophil count, lymphocyte count, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (HsCRP) (5,(12)(13)(14)(15). In addition, research has identified that a cytokine storm could be the primary driver of severe progression in COVID-19 patients (16,17).…”