Introduction
COVID-19, a global pandemic that first appeared in China in December
2019, has quickly spread across the globe since the first case was
reported [1]. KSA had its first case on March 2nd2020;by March 23rd 2022, case had been reported
nationwide. On 14 April, the Saudi Field Epidemiology Training Program
(FETP) investigated a cluster of COVID-19 deaths in Medina. The majority
of deaths were occurring in Hospital A, which was Medina’s designated
COVID-19 hospital. At that time, Medina had 16% of KSA’s total COVID-19
cases and 40% of all COVID-19 deaths. Subsequently, Hospital B in
Dammam was chosen for comparison as it was Dammam’s designated COVID-19
hospital.
Clark et al . [3] developed a prediction model that estimated
a potential occurrence of 1.0 to 2.4 billion severe COVID-19 infections
among people with severe clinical conditions such as cardiovascular
disease, chronic kidney disease, chronic respiratory disease and
diabetes.
The severity of disease varies significantly, ranging from asymptomatic
infection to the development of severe complications and death [4].
Age, gender, and the presence of co-morbidities have been reported to be
contributing factors to COVID-19 severity [5-8]. Patients with
diabetes or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are more likely
to have longer hospitalizations, be admitted to intensive care units
(ICU), and require mechanical ventilation [6; 9]. Conversely, mild
prognosis has been reported among pediatric cases. However, the severity
of the infection has been also reported among children affecting up 5%
of the infected patients although compared to adults, children and/or
adolescents tend to have a mild COVID-19 course with a good
prognosis.[10; 14; 15].
Evidence on the pathology behind the development of the disease has been
also variable. At first, it was thought that the virus affects the
respiratory tract only, however, reports showed that it can affect many
organs including the blood, heart, brain, kidneys, pancreas, and eyes
[16; 17]. Moreover, the severity of the infection has been also
related to several laboratory variables. Prothrombin time, C-reactive
protein, D-dimer, procalcitonin, and fibrinogen levels have been
reportedly associated with the deterioration of the disease [18-22].
Some of these biomarkers have helped in the building prediction models
to decrease mortality among the critically-ill COVID-19 patients [23;
24]. Other investigations have reported an association between
patients’ blood type and the prognosis of the infection [25; 26].
This indicates the fact that mortality due to COVID-19 is different due
to the different epidemiology among the affected populations [27].
For that, we aim to assess and compare the different factors related to
COVID-19 mortality including patients’ demographics, clinical
characteristics, and the used treatment regimens among patients of two
Saudi hospitals.