Risk factors affecting ICU admission in COVID-19 patients; Could air temperature be an effective factor?

Abstract

As the COVID-19 pandemic has been spreading rapidly all over the world, there are plenty of ongoing works to shed on light to unknown factors related to disease. One of the factors questioned is also to be the factors affecting the disease course. In this study, our aim is to determine the factors that affect the course of the disease in the hospitalised patients because of COVID-19 infection and to reveal whether the seasonal change has an effect on the disease course. Our study was conducted on 1950 PCR test positive patients who were hospitalised for COVID-19 disease between March 16 and July 15. As the seasonal temperature increases, decrease in WBC, PLT and albumin levels and increase in LDH and AST levels were observed. Risk of need for ICU has been found statistically significant (P<.05) with the increase in the age, LDH levels and CRP levels and with the decrease in the Ca and Albumin levels. It is predicted with these results that, seasonal change might have affects on the clinical course of the disease, although it has no affect on the spread of the disease. And it might beneficial to check biochemical parameters such as LDH, CRP, Ca and Albumin to predict the course of the disease.