Introduction: The study was focused on comparing crude and sex-adjusted hazard ratio calculated by the baseline variables which may have contributed to the severity of the disease course and fatal outcomes in Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) patients.
Method: The study enrolled 150 eligible adult patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. There were 61 (40.7%) male patients, and 89 (59.3%) female patients. Baseline information of patients was collected from patient medical records and surveys that the patients had completed on admission to the hospital.
Results: Considerable number of baseline variables stratified according to disease severity and outcomes showed different optimal cut-points (OCP) in men and women. Sex-adjusted baseline data categories such as age; BMI; systolic and diastolic blood pressure; peripheral RBC and platelet counts; haematocrit; percentage of neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, and their ratio; percentage of eosinophils; titre of plasma IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, and IL-17; and CXCL10; and ratio of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines demonstrated significant impacts on the development of the severe stage and fatal outcomes by the mean hazard ratio in the Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression models.
Conclusion: This study confirmed some improved predictive capabilities of the sex-adjusted approach in the analysis of the baseline predictive variables for severity and outcome of the COVID-19.
Keywords: Baseline predictive variables; Pro-inflammatory to anti-inflammatory cytokine ratio; Severe COVID-19; Sex-adjusted hazard ratio.
© 2022 The Authors.