A Study on Chronofatality Trends of COVID-19 Deaths at a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

The aim of the study is to find out any association between time of death in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients and variables like age, sex, and existence of comorbidities including type II diabetes mellitus, hypertension, coronary artery disease, chronic kidney disease, etc. An attempt was also made to elucidate the reasons for relationship between time of death and other aforementioned variables. Mortality data of 1,553 COVID-19 cases from a tertiary care hospital between March 2020 to September 2021 were analyzed. Maximum deaths occurred between 18:01 hours to 06:00 hours of the 24-hour cycle. There is a significant statistical association between time of death and age, time of death and sex, time of death and having a comorbidity of diabetes mellitus in the study sample. The study confirms that the chronofatality of COVID-19 deaths has a nocturnal predilection. The circadian rhythms of glucocorticoids, respiratory physiology of sleep, and circadian hemodynamic variations may have a role in prognosis and fatality of COVID-19.