• Neeraj Agarwal, Bijit Biswas, and Pallavi Lohani.
• Department of Community and Family Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, Bihar, India.
• Niger Postgrad Med J. 2020 Oct 1; 27 (4): 293-301.

ObjectivesThe study was designed to explore epidemiological characteristics, determinants of COVID-19 infection development and mortality of patients presenting with severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) to a tertiary care health facility of Bihar.MethodsThis was an observational record-based study, longitudinal in design. Data of 281 SARI patients who have attended All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, Bihar, India during 25th April 2020, till 12th July 2020 (16 weeks) were used for the study.ResultsOut of 281 study participants, 95 (33.8%) were detected to have COVID-19 and 42 (14.9%) died. Among COVID-positive study subject's death rate was 28.4%. In the multivariable logistic regression analysis; increasing age (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.02 [1.00-1.03]), gender (males) (AOR = 2.51 [1.27-4.96]), presenting symptom (cough) (AOR = 2.88 [1.46-5.70]), co-morbidity (hypothyroidism) (AOR = 4.59 [1.45-14.56]) and delay between symptom onset and admission (>2 days) (AOR = 2.46 [1.19-5.07]) were significant predictors of COVID-19 infection among study participants adjusted with other co-morbidities (diabetes and hypertension). Similarly, place of residence (outside Patna district) (AOR = 2.38 [1.03-5.50]), co-morbidity (diabetes) (AOR = 3.08 [1.12-8.50]), intensive care unit (ICU) requirement at admission (yes) (AOR = 9.47 [3.98-22.52]) and COVID status (positive) (AOR = 6.33 [2.68-14.96]) were significant predictors of death among the study participants whereas place of residence (outside Patna district) (AOR = 4.04 [1.33-12.28]) and ICU requirement at admission (yes) (AOR = 7.22 [2.54-20.52]) were attributes affecting death of COVID-positive study participants.ConclusionRisk of COVID-19 infection among the study participants was high. Age, gender and co-morbidities increased the risk of infection. COVID-19 infection negatively impacted the treatment outcome of the study participants. Age, co-morbidity and ICU requirement were the other attributes affecting mortality.

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