Early Determinants of Mortality in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia

Khalid Aziz Ansari; Marwan Jabr Alwazzeh; Feras Ahmed Alkuwaiti; Faraz Ahmed Farooqi; Noor Al Khathlan; Hussain Almutawah; Mustafa Alahmed; Hussain Alfaraj; Ahmed Aljarrash; Jaffar Almadhary; Sarah Alwarthan; Ahmed Mohammed Alsahlawi; Abdullah Bandar Almashouf; Moammer Alqasim; Elaf Alkuwaiti

doi:10.2147/IJGM.S349598

Early Determinants of Mortality in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia

Int J Gen Med. 2022 Feb 16:15:1689-1701. doi: 10.2147/IJGM.S349598. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Khalid Aziz Ansari¹, Marwan Jabr Alwazzeh², Feras Ahmed Alkuwaiti², Faraz Ahmed Farooqi³, Noor Al Khathlan¹, Hussain Almutawah¹, Mustafa Alahmed¹, Hussain Alfaraj¹, Ahmed Aljarrash¹, Jaffar Almadhary¹, Sarah Alwarthan², Ahmed Mohammed Alsahlawi², Abdullah Bandar Almashouf², Moammer Alqasim², Elaf Alkuwaiti⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Respiratory Care, College of Applied Medical Science, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, King Fahd Hospital of the University, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Dental Education, College of Dentistry, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ College of Dentistry, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Purpose: This study investigated the clinical determinants of mortality in hospitalized patients infected with COVID-19.

Patients and methods: A retrospective multicenter large cohort of COVID-19 patients hospitalized between March 2020 and February 2021. We included patients admitted with a confirmed COVID-19 infection with positive COVID-19 through real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). SPSS version 25.0 (Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.) was used to analyze the data.

Results: Among the study participants (n = 1444), the mean age of the population was 49.22±17.69 years, of which 63.9% were males (n = 924). Overall, the mean age for non-survivors was 55.65 ±16.41 years and the length of ICU stay was 13.95 ±12.4 years. The most common comorbidity among the study subjects was hypertension (HTN) (32.7%), followed by cardiovascular disease (CVD) (10.7%). Patients who were mechanically ventilated (MV) had higher mortality than those who did not require MV (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Our study concluded that old age, the presence of underlying cardiovascular conditions, an abnormal WBC count (leukopenia or leukocytosis), and abnormal blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels are among the independent predictors of mortality in the Saudi population. These findings may guide health care providers to manage COVID-19 patients more effectively with better outcomes.

Keywords: COVID; KSA; healthcare; mortality; predictors.