Characteristics of Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients at Admission and Factors Associated with Clinical Severity in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: An Observational Study.

Despite the numerous articles published on the clinical characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 with regard to high-income countries, little is known about patients in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) in this context. The objective of this observational, prospective, hospital-based multicentric study was to describe clinical features and outcomes of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients hospitalized in each of the participating centers in Bangladesh, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Lebanon, Madagascar, and Mali during the first year of the pandemic (March 5, 2020 to May 4, 2021). The study outcome was the clinical severity of COVID-19, defined as hospitalization in intensive care unit or death. Multivariate logistic regression models were performed to identify independent variables associated with disease severity. Overall, 1,096 patients were included. The median age was 49.0 years, ranging from 38.0 in Mali to 63.0 years in Guinea. The overall clinical severity of COVID-19 was 12.3%, ranging from 6.4% in Mali to 18.8% in Guinea. In both groups of patients <60 and ≥60 years old, cardiovascular diseases (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 1.99; 95% CI: 1.13-3.50, P = 0.02; aOR: 2.47; 95% CI: 1.33-4.57, P = 0.004) were independently associated with clinical severity, whereas in patients <60 years, diabetes (aOR: 2.13; 95% CI: 1.11-4.10, P = 0.02) was also associated with clinical severity. Our findings suggest that COVID-19-related severity and death in LMICs are mainly driven by older age. However, the presence of chronic diseases can also increase the risk of severity especially in younger patients.