Factors Associated with Covid-19 Severity and Mortality among Hispanic Patients Living on the Usa-Mexico Border

Abstract

COVID-19 has ravaged the medical, social, and financial landscape across the world, and the USA–Mexico border is no exception. Although some risk factors for COVID-19 severity and mortality have already been identified in various ethnic cohorts, there remains a paucity of data among Hispanics, particularly those living on borders. Ethnic disparities in COVID-19 outcomes in Hispanic and black populations have been reported. We sought to identify the clinical presentation, treatment, laboratory, and imaging characteristics of 82 Hispanic patients in a county hospital and describe the factors associated with rates of hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and mortality. The most common comorbidities were hypertension (48.8%) and diabetes mellitus (DM) (39%), both found to be associated with hospitalization and mortality, while only DM was associated with increased rate of ICU admission. Multivariable analysis showed that individuals with fever, low oxygen saturation (SpO2), nasal congestion, shortness of breath, and DM had an increased risk of hospitalization. Individuals with fever, decreased levels of SpO2, and advanced age were found to be associated with an increased risk of death. The most common cause of death was respiratory failure (28.9%), followed by shock (17.8%) and acute kidney injury (15.6%). Our findings are critical to developing strategies and identifying at-risk individuals in a Hispanic population living on borders. Research aiming to identify key evidence‐based prognostic factors in our patient population will help inform our healthcare providers so that best interventions can be implemented to improve the outcomes of patients with COVID-19.

Factors associated with admission to the intensive care unit and mortality in patients with COVID-19, Colombia

“…Regarding these sociodemographic variables, some studies have found that males have a higher risk of complications [14,19,20] and death [14,18,20]; those findings were not identified in this report, but our results are consistent with those described in other studies [15,21,22]. It was observed that as age increased, patients had a higher probability of dying, consistent with a large number of international publications [14,17,[21][22][23][24] and local studies [11,25], probably due to a higher disease burden [10].…”

“…In this cohort of patients, more than half were initially classified as having serious disease, similar to that found in China (63.0%) [17], and higher than that previously published in Colombia (31.7%) [11]; serious disease is related to complications and mortality [11]. Among the complications, almost two-thirds of the patients presented with acute respiratory distress syndrome, which has also been found frequently in other studies but at various proportions (24.1%-90.0%) [7,11,14,17,23,24]. In addition, 23.6% of the patients in this study progressed to respiratory failure, consistent with what was reported in a systematic review and meta-analysis (16.2%; 95%CI:0.4-43.3%) [9].…”

The Role of Biochemical and Respiratory Markers in the Mortality of Patients With SARS-CoV-2 Infection in a Mexican Population

“…Differences in clinical presentation and outcomes in patients with COVID-19 are associated with racial/ethnic differences [16]. Arshad et al published the association between increased mortality and severe disease in a population of patients with COVID-19 in Pakistan associated with different biomarkers with remarkable sensitivity and specificity, including CRP (86.36%/88.89%), ferritin (95.45%/86.57%), and LDH (90.91%/80.56%) [17].…”

Clinical Characteristics and Treatment Outcomes of COVID-19 Patients at Eka Kotebe General Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

“…[4][5][6][7][8] Older age; comorbidities such as DM, HTN, cardiovascular illness, and chronic respiratory disease, and the symptom of shortness of breath (SOB) have been identified as predictors of disease severity and mortality. [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] Others have reported risk factors for disease severity to be male gender, low oxygen saturation (SpO 2 ), two or more comorbidities, malignancy, chronic kidney disease (CKD), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), obesity, smoking, cough, fever, and fatigue. 9,10,17,18,20 COVID-19 mortality has been associated with decreased SpO 2 , CKD, malignancy, HIV/AIDS, and fever.…”

“…[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] Others have reported risk factors for disease severity to be male gender, low oxygen saturation (SpO 2 ), two or more comorbidities, malignancy, chronic kidney disease (CKD), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), obesity, smoking, cough, fever, and fatigue. 9,10,17,18,20 COVID-19 mortality has been associated with decreased SpO 2 , CKD, malignancy, HIV/AIDS, and fever. 9,15,21 Others report male gender, greater sequential organ failure assessment, and previous and current tuberculosis.…”