Association of COVID-19 With Emergence of Comorbidities: A Hospital-Based Cohort Study

TL;DR

This study shows that people who had COVID-19 are more likely to develop new health problems afterward compared to those who didn't have the virus.

Contribution

The study identifies a strong association between COVID-19 and the emergence of comorbidities, with a relative risk of 3.5.

Findings

51.8% of the cohort developed comorbidities after exposure to COVID-19.

Female patients were more likely to develop multiple comorbidities at once.

Diabetes mellitus was the most common comorbidity, with an incidence rate of 12.9%.

Abstract

Background: In 2019, the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 marked the beginning of the COVID-19 global pandemic, which reached its peak in 2020. Initially designated as a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 emerged as a respiratory illness and later began causing multi-organ complications in recovered patients.

Methods: This article presents a hospital-based retrospective cohort study conducted via telephone interviews with patients in a tertiary hospital. After obtaining verbal consent from the subjects, the study utilized a semi-structured questionnaire to gather data.

Results: In the 54-person cohort group, 64.8% were males and 35.1% were females. The mean duration of the male patients’ hospital stays was greater than that of the female patients. However, the mean lag time between the onset of comorbidities and recovery from COVID-19 was shorter in females than in males. Upon further analysis, it was revealed that female patients are more susceptible to the development of multiple comorbidities at once, occurring in 37.5% of the female patients in this study. Diabetes mellitus alone had the highest incidence rate (12.9%), followed by ST-elevation myocardial Infarctions (7.4%) and thrombocytopenia (5.5%). Of the cohort group, 51.8% developed comorbidities after exposure to COVID-19, while about 14.8% of the control group developed comorbidities from March 2020 onwards, i.e. from the commencement of the COVID-19 global pandemic. The relative risk assessed for this study is 3.5. The study’s attributable risk is 71.42%.

Conclusion: The incidence of comorbidities in the cohort group was greater than that in the control group, demonstrating COVID-19 as a risk factor for post-exposure comorbidities. It is clear that there is a direct association between COVID-19 and the development of comorbidities, which is inferred with a relative risk of 3.5.