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EMPHNET 7th Regional Conference 2021: “Towards Public Health Resilience in the EMR: Breaking Barriers” (62)

Published on in Vol 8, No 1 (2022): Jan-Dec

Preprints (earlier versions) of this paper are available at https://preprints.jmir.org/preprint/36576, first published .
The Impact of Comorbidities on COVID-19 Severity and Mortality in Egypt

The Impact of Comorbidities on COVID-19 Severity and Mortality in Egypt

The Impact of Comorbidities on COVID-19 Severity and Mortality in Egypt

Authors of this article:

Shereen Elghazaly1 Author Orcid Image ;   Hanaa Abu El Sood1 ;   Sahar Samy1 Author Orcid Image ;   Mohamad AbdelFatah1 ;   Mohamed Hassany1 ;   Yousef Khader2 Author Orcid Image ;   Salma Afifi1 Author Orcid Image ;   Alaa Eid1
Article Authors Cited by (1) Tweetations Metrics

Abstract

1MOHP, cairo, Egypt

2Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan, Jordan

Corresponding Author:

Shereen Elghazaly

Ministry of Health and Population

3 Magles Elshaab St

Cairo

Egypt

Phone: 20 1002925933

Email: drshereen84@yahoo.com


Background: Older persons and people of any age with certain underlying comorbidities such as diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, lung disease, kidney disease, liver disease, and cancer are at a higher risk of severe disease course and death if they become infected with COVID-19. Identifying at-risk groups and risk factors for COVID-19 severity and mortality is important for guiding the efficient and appropriate prevention and management of patients with COVID-19.

Objective: This study aimed at describing the demographics and epidemiologic characteristics of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Egypt and determining the impact of different comorbidities on patients’ outcomes.

Methods: The data of all confirmed COVID-19 patients admitted to 408 governmental hospitals all over Egypt from February to May 2020 were collected retrospectively from the National Egyptian Disease Surveillance System. The cases were confirmed using RT-PCR.

Results: Overall, 28,415 patients (55% male and 45% female) were identified. Their median age was 44 years. Of those, 743 (2.6%) were admitted to ICU, 408 (1.4%) required ventilator, and 1045 (3.7%) died. Of the 21,617 (76.1%) patients with completed data, 4687 (21.7%) had comorbidities. Overall, 11.8% had diabetes, 5.3% cardiovascular disease, and 4.3% chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Those who had 1 comorbidity were more likely to die (odds ratio 2.83), were admitted to ICU (odds ratio 6.36), and needed a ventilator (odds ratio 5.95) compared to patients with no comorbidities. Having multiple comorbidities increased the risk of mortality (odds ratio 3.53), ICU admission (odds ratio 8.62), and requiring a ventilator (odds ratio 9.06).

Conclusions: COVID-19 patients with comorbidities had a higher risk of disease severity and mortality. Multiple comorbidities further increase the risk to a higher extent. All necessary precautions should be taken for patients with comorbidities to avoid COVID-19 infection in order to prevent the worst prognosis.

iproc 2022;8(1):e36576

doi:10.2196/36576

Keywords

COVID-19 (3084); comorbidities (27); mortality (240); severe outcome (2); public health surveillance. 

Edited by G Eysenbach; This is a non–peer-reviewed article. submitted 18.01.22; accepted 19.01.22; published 07.02.22

Copyright

©Shereen Elghazaly, Hanaa Abu El Sood, Sahar Samy, Mohamad AbdelFatah, Mohamed Hassany, Yousef Khader, Salma Afifi, Alaa Eid. Originally published in Iproceedings (https://www.iproc.org), 07.02.2022.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in Iproceedings, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://www.iproc.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.