ASIAN PACIFIC JOURNAL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, cilt.15, sa.11, ss.479-484, 2022 (SCI-Expanded)
ABSTRACT
Objective: To determine post-discharge mortality and associated
factors of the first-wave multicenter Turkish Thoracic Society
(TTD)-TURCOVID study.
Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we analyzed the data
of 18 of 26 centers included in the first TTD-TURCOVID study,
and 1112 cases diagnosed with COVID-19 between 11 March and
31 July 2020 participated in the study. All causes of death after
COVID-19 discharge were recorded.
Results: The mean age of the patients was (51.07±16.93) years,
with 57.6% male patients. In the cohort group, 89.1% of COVID-19
treatment locations were hospital wards, 3.6% were intensive care
units (ICUs), and 7.2% were community outpatients. In the longterm follow-up, the in-hospital mortality rate was 3.6% (95% CI 2.6-
4.8), the post-discharge mortality rate was 2.8% (95% CI 1.9-3.9),
and the total mortality was 6.3% (95% CI 5.0-7.8). After discharge,
63.3% of mortality overall occurred during the first six months.
Mortality rates in post-discharge follow-ups were 12.7% (95% CI
8.0-30.6) in cancer patients, 10.8% (95% CI 6.3-22.9) in chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease patients, 11.1% (95% CI 4.4-22.7) in
heart failure patients, 7.8 (95% CI 3.8-14.3) in atherosclerotic heart
disease patients, and 2.3% (95% CI 0.8-5.6) in diabetes mellitus
patients. In smokers/ex-smokers, the all-mortality rates were higher
than in non-smokers.
Conclusions: This multicenter study showed that patients over 65
years of age, males, former/active smoker, ICU stay, lung, heart
disease, and malignancy should be followed up for at least the first
six months after discharge due to COVID-19.