Study of impact of comorbidities on patients with COVID-19 infection

Aim: To study the impact of comorbidities on patients with COVID-19 infection. Materials and Methods: A single center, cross-sectional, observational study was conducted among SARS-CoV-2 infected patients from March 2020 to July 2020. The diagnosis was confirmed by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Various comorbidities were studied to know the treatment outcomes and mortality risk in COVID-19 positive patients. Results: A total of 1977 COVID-19 patients were studied. The mean age was 43.89 ± 15.58 years and had male preponderance of 61.56% of the total subjects. Death rates increased linearly with age in decades with highest fatality rate among those who are aged more than 70 years (21.9%). Among those who died, 73 (52.9%) had both hypertension and diabetes associated with microvascular or macrovascular complications. The overall case fatality rate (CFR) among patients with comorbidities was 12.38%. Among subgroup of comorbidities, Chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients had highest CFR (32%) followed by patients with both hypertension and diabetes (17.5%). Delayed viral clearance is seen in patients with diabetes (33.3%). Conclusion: COVID-19 infection seems to cause high mortality in older individuals (>50 years) with male preponderance. Patients with diabetes and hypertension associated with microvascular or macrovascular complications and CKD patients are at increased risk of disease severity and mortality. Recovery time is also increased in patients with comorbidities mainly diabetes mellitus