Clinical profile and predictors of mortality in patients admitted with COVID-19 in a tertiary care hospital
Background: Hospitalization in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is affected by pre-existing chronic medical conditions and the disease severity. Co-morbidities and the disease severity also affect the survival rate of these patients. Objectives of the study was to describe the baseline clinical profile, co-morbidities and disease severity and to assess the predictors of the mortality in hospitalized adult patients with COVID-19 in a tertiary care hospital in Nepal.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 168 adult patients admitted with COVID-19 in Nobel Medical College Teaching Hospital, Biratnagar for two months. Demographics, comorbidities, disease severity, oxygen requirement, and treatment outcome were studied.Results: The mean age of the patients was 57.1 years with 56.5% male. Out of 168, 16.7% and 10.1% of the participants had currently or in the past used alcohol or tobacco products respectively. Hypertension (28.6%) and chronic lung disease (16.1%) were the most common co-morbidities. The overall case-fatality rate was 17.9% with 32.1% and 56.3% in the severe and critical COVID-19 subgroup respectively. The mortality rate for patients without co-morbidities was 2.4% which increased to 63.6% for those with three or more co-morbidities. Age, disease severity, and the number of co-morbidities were found to be associated with increased mortality (p<0.05) whereas gender was not.Conclusions: The presence of pre-existing chronic diseases and increased severity of the disease were associated with increased mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.