The Impact of Metabolic Syndrome on Clinical Outcome of COVID-19 Patients: A Retrospective Study

Background and aim: The COVID-19 disease has a very high infectivity rate, and the spectrum of the disease symptoms varies from asymptomatic to severe cases of respiratory failure. Metabolic syndrome has been identified as an independent risk factor for severe COVID-19. We studied the relationship between hypertension, diabetes, and obesity, individually and together as a metabolic syndrome, with COVID-19 patients admitted to our hospital.
Materials and methods: We conducted a retrospective observational study involving 204 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 at our tertiary care center. COVID-19 patients were divided into two cohorts, metabolic syndrome and non-metabolic syndrome, according to modified World Health Organization criteria. The outcomes of the analyses were hospital mortality, length of stay in the hospital, need for intensive care unit, invasive mechanical ventilation, and hospital readmissions.
Results: The main finding of our study is that metabolic syndrome patients had significantly greater odds of having hospital mortality (OR=6.59 (2.98-14.55), p=0.025) and hospital readmission (OR=8.17 (1.572-42.51), p=0.013) respectively as compared to non-metabolic syndrome patients. Both hospital mortality and readmissions were regarded as predictors of the severity of COVID-19 disease.
Conclusion: The COVID-19 patients with metabolic syndrome are more prone to hospital mortality and readmission than those with non-metabolic syndrome.