The Risk Factors and Related Hospitalizations for Cases with Positive and Negative COVID-19 Tests: A Case-Control Study

Ghanei, Mostafa; Keyvani, Hossein; Haghdoost, Aliakbar; Abolghasemi, Hassan; Janbabaei, Ghasem; Reza Jamshidi, Hamdi; Hosein Ghazale, Amir; Hassan Saadat, Seyed; Gholami Fesharaki, Mohammad; Raei, Mehdi

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the risk factors for hospitalizations of cases with positive and negative COVID-19 tests. METHODS: In this case-control study, the case and control groups consisted of 292 COVID-19 patients and 296 non-COVID-19 patients. Patients who referred to a reference laboratory in Tehran (Iran) in March 2020 were selected and interviewed. The patients were contacted by telephone and data were recorded through a questionnaire. RESULTS: The sample of this study consisted of 588 patients (349 [59%] females, 239 [41%] males) with a mean age of 42±15. The results of this study showed that comorbidities like diabetes (OR=7.42), hypertension (OR=4.85), asthma and respiratory diseases (OR=5.64) in addition to symptoms including fever (OR=6.67), chills (OR=11.2), anorexia (OR=11.3), dyspnea (OR=4.8), weakness and lethargy (OR=5.7) were the most predictive variables for hospitalization of non-COVID-19 cases. Furthermore, demographical variables like male gender (OR=3.71), high age (>50; OR=3.12), BMI (>25; OR=2.37), travel (OR=2.79), comorbidities including diabetes (OR=5.26), hypertension (OR=3.7) and underlying immunosuppressant patients receiving corticosteroid therapy (OR=3.62) in addition to symptoms like anorexia [OR=2.55] and dyspnea (OR=6.99) tend to increase the risk of hospital admission in COVID-19 patients, suggesting their predictive values for hospitalization of COVID-19 patients. CONCLUSION: Our results indicated that different factors tend to increase the odds of hospital admission in patients with positive and negative COVID-19 tests, suggesting their predictive values for hospitalization.