National early warning score (NEWS) 2 predicts hospital mortality from COVID-19 patients

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has a high risk of mortality, especially in patients with comorbid diseases such as cardiac disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, and hypertension. The National Early Warning Score (NEWS) is a tool that helps in identifying changes in patient conditions that require intensive treatment. OBJECTIVE: Analyzing NEWS-2 to identify the risk of death in COVID-19 patients. METHODS: This research was conducted from June to July 2020 by using quota sampling. The number of participants in this study was 112 participants (case group = 56 participants and control group = 56 participants). Participants were assessed for NEWS-2 and evaluated for their treatment outcomes. The analysis used in this study was the Chi-squared test and logistic regression with p < 0.05. RESULTS: 45 participants died of having NEWS-2 score >5, and as many as 50 participants showed an improvement in their condition by having NEWS-2 score 5 (OR = 34.091; p < 0.001). The accuracy of NEWS-2's assessment of mortality of COVID-19 patients had a sensitivity of 80.4% and a specificity of 89.3%. There were several comorbid diseases that had a significant relationship on mortality of COVID-19 patients such as cardiac disease (β = 5.907; 1.107–31.527 95% CI; p = 0.038), T2DM (β = 3.143; 1.269–7.783 95% CI; p = 0.013), CKD (β = 3.851; 1.195–12.416 95% CI; p = 0.024), and hypertension (β = 2.820; 1.075–7.399 95% CI; p = 0.035). CONCLUSION: The NEWS-2 can be used to identify the risk of death of COVID-19 patients.