Covid-19 mortality risk factors in the hospitalized patients in Sahloul University Hospital-Tunisia

Context: Tunisia was one of the most affected nations with COVID-19 disease. The clinical features of this illness ranged from asymptomatic illness to death. <bold>Aim:</bold> To analyse the survival of patients admitted to a Tunisian tertiary care center (Sahloul University Hospital) and identify independent risk factors for hospital COVID-19 mortality. <bold>Methods:</bold> A longitudinal study was conducted among confirmed COVID -19 patients hospitalized in Sahloul University Hospital between September 2020 and September 2022. Cox univariate regression was used to calculate the Hazard Ratio (HR) of death for patient characteristics regarding the time at risk. Risk factors with a p value of 0.2 or less in the univariate analysis were initially included in the multivariate Cox regression models. <bold>Results:</bold> During the study at Sahloul Hospital, 1978 patients were hospitalized, averaging 55.65 years in age (± 21.39). Among them, 417 deaths occurred, with a median survival of 30 days (± 3.11) [23.904- 36.096]. Factors significantly affecting the survival curve were : Age, male gender, comorbidities, diabetes, hypertension, endocrine diseases, obesity, intubation, and ICU admission Multilevel survival analyses revealed that hypertension (aHR 1.24; CI [1.02- 1.52]; p=0.028), ICU admission (aHR 12.20- CI [9.56- 15.57]; p<10-3), and male gender (HR 1.19; CI [0.98- 1.46]; p=0.076) were independent factors associated with COVID-19 mortality. <bold>Conclusion:</bold> Our study concluded the importance of the early identification of high-risk COVID-19 patients to decrease this virus mortality.