Co-morbidity and blood group type risk in coronavirus disease 2019 patients: A case–control study

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to assess mortality risk associated with co-morbidities and blood group type in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients in Jazan, Saudi Arabia. METHODS: This case–control study enrolled 323 Saudi adults with COVID-19, confirmed by real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction. The participants were selected randomly between August 31, 2020, and July 1, 2020, from the Health Electronic Surveillance Network system, which contains the primary data on COVID-19 infections in Jazan, Saudi Arabia. The sample included 108 patients who died due to COVID-19 disease and 215 controls who recovered from it (1:2 ratio). The chi-square test, independent samples t-test, and logistic regression were used to perform the statistical analysis. RESULTS: Mortality was higher in older age patients with COVID-19 (mean = 65.4 years, standard deviation [SD] = 15.6) compared to recovered patients (mean = 39.5 years, SD = 14.8) (p < 0.001) with a moderate effect size (eta squared = 0.06). Diabetes mellitus (odds ratio [OR] = 9.4), hypertension (OR = 8.6), cardiovascular disease (OR = 7.4), chronic kidney disease (OR = 3.3), and obesity (OR = 2.0) were significantly associated with death due to COVID-19. Using logistic regression analysis, older age and diabetes mellitus were the primary independent predictors of COVID-19 mortality. However, there was no significant association between a specific ABO blood group and mortality risk (P = 0.07). CONCLUSION: Older age and the presence of co-morbidities, especially diabetes mellitus, increased the risk of death in patients with COVID-19. Establishing the causality of death in patients with COVID-19 should be a key aim of future studies.