Comorbidities and Mortality Risk in COVID-19 Infected Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study in North-Eastern Iran

Objective: The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, started in Wuhan, China, and was recognized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. In Iran, the first confirmed COVID-19 case was officially reported on February 19. The aim of this study was to investigate the epidemiological and clinical characteristics, and comorbid conditions, and determine risk factors for the mortality of COVID-19 patients as well as provide a comparison of the epidemiological features between the 3 waves of COVID-19 in the North-East of Iran from January 21, 2020, to March 20, 2021. Material and Methods: The current retrospective epidemiological population-based study was conducted on COVID-19 patients who were admitted to the hospitals affiliated to the Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in Razavi-Khorasan province, Iran. The data were extracted from the Medical Care Monitoring System of the Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. Results: In total, 43.6% of subjects had at least one coexisting underlying medical condition. The most common comorbidities were hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases with the prevalence of 19.7, 15.1, and 13.3%; respectively. The overall case fatality rate was 15.0%, following a median of 4 days [interquartile range (IQR) 1-10] of hospitalization. The mean±SD and the median (IQR) of age in expired subjects were 67.40±18.27 and 70 (59-81) years; respectively. Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that age >60, male sex, loss of consciousness, respiratory distress, having at least one comorbidity, and diabetes were mortality risk factors among COVID-19 patients.