COVID-19 acts like a stress test, uncovering the vulnerable part of the human body: a retrospective study of 1640 cases in China

TL;DR

This study analyzed 1640 hospitalized COVID-19 cases in China to understand how age, gender, and medical history affect clinical outcomes.

Contribution

The study identifies age, hypertension, atherosclerosis, and cancer as significant risk factors for severe clinical manifestations in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Findings

Age showed a significant difference in clinical presentations (P = .001).

Hypertension, atherosclerosis, and cancer were significant hazard factors for severe outcomes.

SARS-CoV-2 infection can worsen pre-existing conditions in specific organs.

Abstract

Since the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection exhibits multi-organ damage with diverse complications, the correlation between age, gender, medical history and clinical manifestations of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients was investigated.

1640 patients who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 and hospitalized at the First Affiliated Hospital of Ningbo University from 22 December 2022 to 1 March 2023 were categorized and analysed. Normal distribution test and variance homogeneity test were performed. Based on the test results, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson's chi-squared test and logistic regression analysis were conducted in the study.

According to the ANOVA, there was a significant difference in the age distribution (P = .001) between different clinical presentations, while gender did not (P = .06). And regression analysis showed that age, hypertension, atherosclerosis and cancer were significant hazard factors for the development of predominant clinical manifestations in patients hospitalized with novel COVID-19. Additionally, infection with SARS-CoV-2 has the potential to exacerbate the burden on specific diseased or related organs.

The elderly who are infected with SARS-CoV-2 ought to be treated with emphasis not only on antiviral therapy but also on individualized treatment that takes their medical history and comorbidities into account.

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