Epidemiological Characteristics, Clinical Features, and Outcome of COVID-19 Patients in Northern Tehran, Iran; a Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: Following the widespread pandemic of the novel coronavirus diseases (COVID-19), this study has reported demographic and laboratory findings and clinical outcomes of patients with COVID-19 admitted to a tertiary educational hospital in 99 days in Iran. Objective: We aimed to investigate in-hospital death risk factors including underlying diseases and describe the signs, symptoms, and demographic features of COVID-19 patients. Methods: All confirmed COVID-19 cases admitted from 22 February to 30 May 2020 were extracted from hospital records. A follow-up telephone survey was conducted 30 days after discharge to acquire additional data such as survival status. Distribution of demographic and clinical characteristics was presented based on survival status during hospitalization. All analyses were performed using STATA version 14 with a level of significance below 5%. Results: Among 1083 recorded patients, the rate of survival and death was 89.2% (n=966) and 10.8% (n=117), respectively. 62% of the cases (n=671) were male. The mean recovery time was 1.90 (3.4) days in survived cases, which was significantly lower than that in deceased cases 4.5 (5.2) days, p<0.001). A significantly higher rate of death was observed among patients above the age of 60 years (24.8%, p<0.001), cases with hypertension (25.4%, P<0.001) and cases without cough (17 %, p=0.002) but with shortness of breath (16.5%, p=0.001). Conclusions: Our study emphasized the significant effect of different underlying conditions as mortality factors among COVID-19 patients, namely older age spectrum, hypertension, and ischemic heart disease. By acknowledging the epidemiologic pattern and mortality factors, we have more tools to prioritize and make better judgments, and more lives can be saved