Neurological diseases as mortality predictive factors for patients with COVID-19: a retrospective cohort study

Hwang, Jong-moon; Kim, Ju-Hyun; Park, Jin-Sung; Chang, Min Cheol; Park, Donghwi

INTRODUCTION: In the current study, we evaluated factors that increase the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patient death rate by analyzing the data from two cohort hospitals. In addition, we studied whether underlying neurological diseases are risk factors for death. METHODS: In this retrospective cohort study, we included 103 adult inpatients (aged ≥ 18 years). We evaluated differences in demographic data between surviving and non-surviving COVID-19 patients. RESULTS: In a multivariate logistic analysis, age and the presence of chronic lung disease and Alzheimer’s dementia (AD) were the only significant parameters for predicting COVID-19 non-survival (p < 0.05). However, hypertension, coronary vascular disease, dyslipidemia, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, and history of taking angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) or angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, as well as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), were not significantly associated with the death of COVID-19 patients. The optimal cutoff value obtained from the maximum Youden index was 70 (sensitivity, 80.77%; specificity, 61.04%), and the odds ratio of non-survival increased 1.055 fold for every year of age. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians should closely monitor and manage the symptoms of COVID-19 patients who are over the age of 70 years or have chronic lung disease or AD.