Department of Internal Medicine, Guthrie Medical Group, Sayre, PA, United States of America.
Donald Guthrie Foundation, Sayre, PA, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2022 Apr 27;17(4):e0267468. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0267468. eCollection 2022.
Inherent differences as well as health disparities among rural and urban populations warrant further studies focused on the characteristics and outcomes in COVID-19 patients in a rural setting. The aim of this study was to describe these elements in patients infected with SARS-CoV2, hospitalized at a single center in rural Pennsylvania.
Patients with SARS-CoV2 infections hospitalized between March-December 2020 were studied. Data were obtained from electronic health records generated reports and was retrospectively analyzed. Patients were classified into three groups according to severity. Distribution of variables was studied among these three groups. Using certain variables, we ran logistic regression analysis to study the odds of death and requirement of mechanical ventilation (MV).
Among 335 hospitalized patients infected with SARS-CoV2, age more than 65 years increased the severity of clinical status and in-hospital mortality. Gender did not affect odds of death nor need for MV. Hypertension was the most common comorbidity, but diabetes mellitus and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) increased the risk of death. In terms of laboratory parameters, our data suggests that maximum LDH marginally increased the risk of death and maximum WBC marginally increased the risk of need for MV and death.
Through our basic analysis of various characteristics of SARS-CoV2 positive patients admitted in a rural hospital, we have identified certain risk factors associated with severe disease and increased in-hospital mortality. These were found to be largely similar to current literature from studies in urban populations, bolstering the reproducibility and generalizability of existing knowledge. This information lays the foundation for future studies to investigate the role of these factors in morbidity and mortality associated with COVID-19 in depth.
农村和城市人口之间存在固有差异和健康差距，这需要进一步研究，重点关注农村环境中 COVID-19 患者的特征和结局。本研究旨在描述宾夕法尼亚州农村地区单一中心住院的 SARS-CoV2 感染患者的这些特征。
研究了 2020 年 3 月至 12 月期间住院的 SARS-CoV2 感染患者。数据来自电子病历生成的报告，并进行了回顾性分析。根据严重程度将患者分为三组。研究了这三组之间变量的分布。使用某些变量，我们进行了逻辑回归分析，以研究死亡和需要机械通气（MV）的几率。
在 335 名感染 SARS-CoV2 的住院患者中，年龄超过 65 岁会增加临床状况和住院死亡率的严重程度。性别不会影响死亡几率或需要 MV。高血压是最常见的合并症，但糖尿病和慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）会增加死亡风险。就实验室参数而言，我们的数据表明，最大乳酸脱氢酶（LDH）略有增加死亡风险，最大白细胞计数（WBC）略有增加需要 MV 和死亡的风险。
通过对农村医院住院的 SARS-CoV2 阳性患者的各种特征进行基本分析，我们确定了与严重疾病和住院死亡率增加相关的某些危险因素。这些发现与城市人群研究中的现有文献大致相似，增强了现有知识的可重复性和普遍性。这些信息为未来研究深入探讨这些因素在 COVID-19 相关发病率和死亡率中的作用奠定了基础。
