ABSTRACT
After more than two years of COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 still remains a global public health problem. Successive waves of infection have produced new SARS-CoV-2 variants with new mutations whose impact on COVID-19 severity and patient survival is uncertain. A total of 764 SARS-CoV-2 genomes sequenced from COVID-19 patients, hospitalized from 19th February 2020 to 30st April 2021, along with their clinical data, were used for survival analysis. A significant association of B.1.1.7, the alpha lineage, with patient mortality (Log Hazard ratio LHR=0.51, C.I.=[0.14,0.88]) was found upon adjustment by all the covariates known to affect COVID-19 prognosis. Moreover, survival analysis of mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 genome rendered 27 of them significantly associated with higher mortality of patients. Most of these mutations were located in the S, ORF8 and N proteins. This study illustrates how a combination of genomic and clinical data provide solid evidence on the impact of viral lineage on patient survival.
ABSTRACT
AIM: To know the place of death and its relationship to age, gender and causes of death. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A cross-sectional analysis of national population data using 31,463 deaths derived from Official Statistics on Mortality in Andalusia for the year 2009 was carried out. The variables studied were place of death (hospital, home or care home), age, gender and cause of mortality. Odds ratio adjusted by gender, age and cause of mortality using a multinomial logistic regression model. Place of death was chosen as dependent variable and age, gender and cause of death as independent ones. RESULTS: The place of death was hospital (61%), home (31%) and care home (8%). The higher the age, the higher the percentage of deaths at home and especially in care homes. Deaths in care homes are related to age (OR: 1,054; 95%CI: 1,049-1,059) and central nervous system (OR: 2,221; 95%CI: 1,826-2,071) and endocrine diseases (OR: 1,391; 95%CI: 1,141-1,697). There is a lower likelihood of dying at home due to digestive diseases (OR: 0,272; 95%CI: 0.23-0.32), genitourinary diseases (OR: 0.54; 95%CI: 0.44-0.65) and respiratory diseases (OR: 0.73; 95%CI: 0.64-0.82). CONCLUSIONS: Most Andalusians die in the hospital and increasing age has been found to be associated with higher probability of dying at home or in care homes. There are differences between death causes regarding place of death.
