A hospital-based retrospective cohort study of COVID-19 deaths in a tertiary care medical college hospital in Bengaluru, Karnataka

Abstract

Background: The outbreak of new SARS-CoV-2 infection has spread all over the world. Globally, there have been 624,235,272 confirmed cases of COVID-19 including 6,555,270 deaths as on October 24, 2022, as declared by World Health Organization. Unlike the countries earlier affected with this pandemic, which have undergone epidemiologic transition, India still faces the dual burden of infectious and chronic disease challenges. Objectives: The objective of this study was to study the demographic and clinical characteristics of deceased COVID-19 cases. To compare clinical parameters between deceased comorbid and noncomorbid COVID-19 cases and to perform a time audit of deceased COVID-19 cases from the onset of symptom to the time of hospitalization and death. Materials and Methods: A hospital-based retrospective cohort study was conducted at a tertiary care medical college hospital, Bengaluru. The study was conducted by review of clinical data of 142 COVID-19 deaths which occurred during the second COVID-19 wave. Details including age, gender, the period of the illness before to and/or during hospitalizations, symptoms, comorbidities, and reason of death were all noted. Results: According to the present study, 68.3% of deaths were with comorbidities and 31.7% were without comorbidities. Of the total deaths, 64.8% were males and 35.2% were females. Majority of the deceased were between 51 and 70 years. At the time of arrival to the hospital, 50.7% recorded SPO2 <88%. Around 60% of the deceased were severe cases and were directly admitted to a high dependency unit or intensive care unit. About 17.6% died within 24 h of admission. Conclusions: The current study showed very high case fatality rate due to COVID-19 and was slightly higher in males.

Keywords

• covid-19
• pandemic
• sars-cov-2