Korean J Fam Pract.  2021 Oct;11(5):365-371. 10.21215/kjfp.2021.11.5.365.

Epidemiological and Clinical Characteristics of Hospitalized Patients with Community Acquired Coronavirus Disease 2019 Infection According to Severity Classification

• Jang DS
• Yun HS
• Lee SH

• KMID: 2521441
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.21215/kjfp.2021.11.5.365

Abstract

Background
In December 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged in Wuhan, China and, thereafter, rapidly spread worldwide, including South Korea. The spread of COVID-19 is still ongoing throughout the country, but information on the clinical characteristics of affected patients in the community outbreak is limited.
Methods
We obtained epidemiological, demographic, clinical, laboratory, radiological, and treatment findings of hospitalized patients confirmed by using real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests. Clinical outcomes were analyzed according to National Institute of Health (NIH) clinical spectrum.
Results
The mean age of the 214 hospitalized patients infected with COVID-19 was 47.0±17.7 years, and 72.9% of the patients were female. According to NIH clinical spectrum, 104 (48.6%) of the patients were/had ‘asymptomatic/mild illness’, 63 (29.4%) had ‘moderate illness’, 47 (22.0%) were/had ‘severe/critical illness.’ Common symptoms included cough (67.8%), fever (63.6%), and sputum (54.2%), and a significant proportion of the patients presented gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea/vomiting (45.8%) and diarrhea (45.8%). Almost half the number of patients (109; 50.9%) developed pneumonia during the clinical course, and lymphocytopenia was present in 108 (50.5%) of the patients on admission. The mean length of stay in hospital was 27.4±16.2 days; 140 (65.4%) of the patients were discharged, 61 (28.5%) shifted to the residential treatment center, 11 (5.1%) transferred to the tertiary hospital, and 2 (0.9%) died.
Conclusion
In this single-center, retrospective, descriptive study, fever was the most common symptom and a good predictor of disease progression. Old age and chronic underlying diseases, such as hypertension and diabetes mellitus, may be risk factors for worse condition.

Keyword

COVID-19; Epidemiologic Studies; Clinical Characteristics; National Institute of Health Clinical Spectrum