New Study Findings from Tehran University of Medical Sciences Illuminate Research in COVID-19 (National geographical pattern of COVID-19 hospitalization, case fatalities, and associated factors in patients covered by Iran Health Insurance …): Coronavirus – COVID-19

2022 JUL 19 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at NewsRx COVID-19 Daily -- Researchers detail new data in COVID-19. According to news reporting originating from Tehran University of Medical Sciences by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Understanding the Spatio-temporal distribution and interpersonal comparisons are important tools in etiological studies. This study was conducted to investigate the temporal and geographical distribution of COVID-19 hospitalized patients in the Iran Health Insurance Organization (IHIO) insured population (the second largest social health insurance organization) and the factors affecting their case fatality rate (CFR).”

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Tehran University of Medical Sciences: “In this descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study, the demographic and clinical data of all insured of the IHIO who were hospitalized with COVID-19 in hospitals across the country until March 2021 was extracted from the comprehensive system of handling the inpatient documents of this organization. The Excel 2019 and GeoDA software were used for descriptive reporting and geographical distribution of variables. A multiple logistic regression model was used to estimate the Odds Ratio (OR) of death in patients with COVID-19 using STATA 14 software. During the first 14 months of the COVID-19 outbreak in Iran, 0.72% of the IHIO insured (303,887 individuals) were hospitalized with COVID-19. Hospitalization per 100,000 people varied from 192.51 in East Azerbaijan to 1,277.49 in Yazd province. The overall CFR in hospitalized patients was 14%. Tehran and Kohgiluyeh & BoyerAhmad provinces had the highest and lowest CFR with 19.39% and 5.19%, respectively. The highest odds of death were in those over 80 years old people (OR = 9.65), ICU-admitted (OR = 7.49), Hospitalized in governmental hospitals (OR = 2.08), Being a foreign national (OR = 1.45), hospitalized in November (OR = 1.47) and Residence in provinces such as Sistan & Baluchestan (OR = 1.47) and Razavi Khorasan (OR = 1.66) respectively. Furthermore, the odds of death were lower in females (OR = 0.81) than in males.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “A sound understanding of the primary causes of COVID-19 death and severity in different groups can be the basis for developing programs focused on more vulnerable groups in order to manage the crisis more effectively and benefit from resources more efficiently.”

For more information on this research see: National geographical pattern of COVID-19 hospitalization, case fatalities, and associated factors in patients covered by Iran Health Insurance Organization. BMC Public Health, 2022,22(1):1-13. (BMC Public Health - http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com). The publisher for BMC Public Health is BMC.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13649-0.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Soheila Damiri, Department of Health Management and Economics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Additional authors for this research include Ali Shojaee, Mohsen Dehghani, Zahra Shahali, Sadrollah Abbasi, Rajabali Daroudi.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)