Clinical Risk Factors of Need for Intensive Care Unit Admission of COVID-19 Patients; a Cross-sectional Study

It could be beneficial to accelerate the hospitalization of patients with the identified clinical risk factorsof intensive care unit (ICU) admission, in order to control and reduce COVID-19-related mortality. This study aimedto determine the clinical risk factors associated with ICU hospitalization of COVID-19 patients.

The currentresearch was a cross-sectional study. The study recruited 7182 patients who had positive PCR tests between February 23,2020, and September 7, 2021 and were admitted to Afzalipour Hospital in Kerman, Iran, for at least 24 hours. Their demo-graphic characteristics, underlying diseases, and clinical parameters were collected. In order to analyze the relationshipbetween the studied variables and ICU admission, multiple logistic regression model, classification tree, and supportvector machine were used.

It was found that 14.7 percent (1056 patients) of the study participants were admit-ted to ICU. The patients’ average age was 51.25±21 years, and 52.8% of them were male. In the study, some factors suchas decreasing oxygen saturation level (OR=0.954, 95%CI: 0.944-0.964), age (OR=1.007, 95%CI: 1.004-1.011), respiratorydistress (OR=1.658, 95%CI: 1.410-1.951), reduced level of consciousness (OR=2.487, 95%CI: 1.721-3.596), hypertension(OR=1.249, 95%CI: 1.042-1.496), chronic pulmonary disease (OR=1.250, 95%CI: 1.006-1.554), heart diseases (OR=1.250,95%CI: 1.009-1.548), chronic kidney disease (OR=1.515, 95%CI: 1.111-2.066), cancer (OR=1.682, 95%CI: 1.130-2.505),seizures (OR=3.428, 95%CI: 1.615-7.274), and gender (OR=1.179, 95%CI: 1.028-1.352) were found to significantly affectICU admissions.

As evidenced by the obtained results, blood oxygen saturation level, the patient’s age, andtheir level of consciousness are crucial for ICU admission.