Risk Factors Prediction, Clinical Outcomes, and Mortality of COVID-19 Patients

Background: Preventing communicable diseases requires understanding the spread, epidemiology, clinical features, progression, and prognosis of the disease. Early identification of risk factors and clinical outcomes might help to identify critically ill patients, provide proper treatment and prevent mortality. Methods: We conducted a prospective study in patients with flu-like symptoms referred to the imaging department of a tertiary hospital in IRAN between 3 March 2020 and 8 April 2020. Patients with COVID-19 were followed up to check their health condition after two months. The categorical data between groups were analyzed by Fisher exact test and continuous data by Wilcoxon Rank-Sum Test. Findings: 319 patients (mean age 45.48 years, 177 women) were enrolled. Fever, dyspnea, weakness, shivering, C-reactive protein (CRP), fatigue, dry cough, anorexia, anosmia, ageusia, dizziness, sweating and age were the most important symptoms of COVID-19 infection. Traveling in past three months, asthma, taking corticosteroids, liver disease, rheumatological disease, cough with sputum, eczema, conjunctivitis, tobacco use, and chest pain did not have any relationship with COVID-19. Interpretation: Finding clinical symptoms for early diagnosis of COVID-19 is a critical part of prevention. These symptoms can help in the assessment of disease progression. To the best of our knowledge, some of the effective features on the mortality due to COVID-19 are investigated for the first time in this research. Funding: None