The conditions have been, from the beginning of the pandemic, associated with the progression of Covid disease to severity and higher mortality risk. These have also been linked with prolonging the recovery period.

The findings, published in the journal Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, showed that patients with CKD were the most prone to severity and mortality, followed by high blood pressure and diabetes.

Compared to the elderly patients with these comorbidities, the severity of Covid infection and mortality was found to be much higher in younger patients.

Comorbidities and Covid-19 in Women

Many studies have reported males are at higher risk of infection than females. In this study, although the number of Covid admitted male patients (69.6%) was more than twice the number of females (30.4%), the risk of severity of infection and mortality was found to be higher amongst the females.

This is even after having the same comorbid conditions, except for the hypertensive patients, the researchers said.

“Our study showed the risk of the severity of Covid-19 infection in younger patients with underlying comorbidities were found to be relatively at higher risk of severity of disease as well as to mortality compared to elderly patients with similar underlying condition,” said Dr Vivek Ranjan, co-author and Chairperson at the hospital’s Department of Blood Transfusion.

Out of the 2,586 patients, 779 (30.1 per cent) needed ICU admission, whereas 1,807 (69.9 per cent) did not require it.

About 2,269 (87.7%) recovered, while 317 (12.3%) patients died.A

“On comparing the impact of multiple comorbidities with the severity of Covid-19 infection, it was found that the presence of comorbidity poses a greater risk of ICU admission. As the number of comorbidities increases, the risk of severity of Covid-19 infection also increases significantly,” said Dr. D.S. Rana, co-author and Chairperson, Department of Renal Sciences.

Source: IANS