Factors affecting the disease severity of COVID-19 patients in an emergency setting

Background
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious disease with a fast rate of spread. A present issue concerns a new variant of the virus with a more robust transmission ability and infection power than the original variant.

Objectives
The aim of this study was to analyse factors affecting the disease severity of COVID-19 patients in an emergency setting.

Material and methods
This study was conducted in UKRIDA Hospital. A total of 262 patients were included based on inclusion and exclusion criteria using non-probability consecutive sampling. The dependent variable was the severity of COVID-19 based on the New Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2). The independent variables were age, gender, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, atherosclerosis, onset to admission interval, haemoglobin concentration, renal function and liver function. The data was collected from medical record and was analysed using the Chi-square or Mann-Whitney test and multinomial logistic regression.

Results
The results showed mild severity of COVID-19 (84.4%) followed by moderate (9.9%) and severe COVID-19 (5.7%). We also found that age (p = 0.003), hypertension (p = 0.095), diabetes mellitus (p = 0.191), atherosclerosis (p = 0.004), onset to admission interval (p = 0.016), renal function (p = 0.048) and liver function (p = 0.007) were eligible for multivariate analysis. Further analysis showed that age (p = 0.038) and diabetes mellitus (p = 0.034) are the most significant factors related to the severity of the disease.

Conclusions
Age and diabetes mellitus are significant factors contributing to the severity of COVID-19 in an emergency setting.