Dynamics of COVID-19 and demographic characteristics as predisposing risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection: a hospital-based, one-center retrospective study

Abstract

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is the most devastating health crisis our generation has seen. The present study tries to gather more epidemiological data and improve the knowledge of the demographic factors responsible for a higher incidence of COVID-19. We analyzed the real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) results obtained in one of the biggest tertiary hospitals in Bulgaria during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (May 2020–April 2021). For this period, almost 40% of all tested samples of hospitalized patients and health care workers in University Hospital “St. Marina,” Varna, were SARS-CoV-2 positive. The most affected individuals were 60–79-year-old people. Male sex is a significant risk factor only for the active ages (20–59 years), while both men and women of advanced age have the same risk to be infected with SARS-CoV-2. Interestingly, girls under 19 years were more susceptible to the infection than boys in the same age group.

Keywords

• coronavirus
• real time polymerase chain reaction
• epidemiology
• pandemic
• risk factors