Mortality and Risk Factors in Patients With COVID-19 in Ecuador: A Cross-Sectional Analytic Study

Abstract Background: In Ecuador, a high mortality was observed during the maximum peak of COVID-19 cases in spring/summer 2020. Thus, 10000 thousand more deaths were registered in 2020 compared to 2019 in the same period time. A few researchers in Latin America have identified clinical conditions that could be associated with severity and mortality of this disease. The aim of this study was to describe main clinical characteristics and risk factors in patients with COVID-19 in the Ecuadorian context. Methods: A cross sectional analytic study was conducted from March to July 2020. Adult patients with COVID-19 confirmed by PCR test and admitted in emergency service was included in this study. Descriptive statistical measures were computed, and Chi-squared and logistic regression were performed to analyze associations between categorical variables. Results: The main results of 157 patients, showed that had a high prevalence of comorbidities (45%), and the case-fatality rate in this group was around 37%. Hypertension (17.83%) and diabetes (14.65%) were the most prevalent chronic diseases with a significant difference between sex groups (p value 0.00). Risk factor such as age more than 65 years, presence of comorbidities such as non-communicable diseases, and abnormalities in blood markers like urea, AST, lactate, leucocytes, PO2 and D-dimer increased risk to die in this population. Conclusions: The elevated prevalence of non-communicable diseases (hypertension and diabetes) contributed to a high mortality in adult patients with COVID-19. Huge challenges must face health care systems in the Latin America countries due to the high prevalence of these diseases.