Age/BMI is a Stronger Predictor of Death in COVID-19 Patients than Age Alone: A Pilot Study

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of age and BMI on the risk of death in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). A cohort of 206 Saudi COVID-19 patients was included in this study. Data on age, BMI, hospitalization, comorbidities, and death were collected and analyzed. Descriptive, univariate, and multivariate logistic regression analyses were carried out. Out of the 206 studied patients, 28 died. Hypertension, cardiac disease, and hospital admission were predictors of death in univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. Moreover, age was a significant predictor of death, while increased BMI seemed to be protective at an older age. Therefore, a new score was suggested taking into consideration both factors, namely age/BMI score. Although older age was associated with death in univariate (OR, 1.09 [95% CI 1.05-1.12], p < 0.001) and multivariate analysis (OR, 1.05 [95% CI 1.02-1.09], p = 0.004), a higher age/BMI score was a stronger predictor of death than age alone, in both univariate (OR 4.42 [95% CI 2.50-7.80], p < 0.001) and multivariate analysis (OR 3.11 [95% CI 1.66-5.82], p < 0.001). Several factors appear to contribute to the risk of COVID-19 death. Interestingly, our new age/BMI score seems to carry a higher risk of death than age alone. This new score will be designated as the Hajeer score. Since this is a small cohort study, we recommend investigating this score in a larger cohort.

Keywords: Age/BMI score; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Saudi.