(P-120) Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Saudi Arabia: A Nationwide Epidemiological Characterization Study

Background: On the 11th of March 2020, The WHO declared that the COVID-19 is a pandemic due to the worldwide spread. The COVID-19 pandemic has extended its impact to Saudi Arabia. Till mid of February 2021, over 373,000 COVID-19 cases have been reported in the kingdom in different population categories (i.e., different age groups, male and female …etc.).

Objectives: This nationwide study aimed to describe and explore the characteristics of hospitalized patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia.

Methods: This was an observational epidemiological study based on collected clinical data from around ten health institutions. The study covered the period from March 2nd, 2020, to January 31st, 2021. on 5939 Patients across all Saudi Arabia regions. The study included data on demographics, medical file information, therapy file, and laboratory and diagnostic file. Furthermore, information on smoking status, pregnancy, comorbidities, length of hospital stay were also included. Descriptive analyses were conducted using statistical analysis software (SAS® version 9.4)

Results: Around 6000 patients were included in this study, with the majority of them were males (73%). The most hospitalized patients age group were 51-60 (23%) followed by 41-50 (22%). Furthermore, the majority of the patients were not smokers (70%). Quite a high number of patients have comorbidities (68.8%), with hypertension as the most common disease (20%), followed by diabetes (16.8%) and coronary heart diseases (12.5%). Only 4% of the patients have obesity. It was noticed that there was a high number of patients with hypothyroidism (10%).
A high proportion of the patients, 1799 patients (30%), were admitted to the intensive care unit. Of those, 11.9% of patients were needed to be on mechanical ventilation. Most of the patients (81%) were put on anticoagulant prophylaxis medications, and (4.7 %) used mechanical venous thrombolytic devices. All patients were given more than one antibiotic prophylaxis, and (5.6 %) were given antifungals.
Overall, the hospital stay's median stay was 13 days, and the median length in the intensive care unit is 5 days and 5.6 days in the isolation unit. Around (77%) of patients were discharged from the hospital, (6 %) were discharged with some complications, and (9.9%) died.

Conclusions: Our study found that the COVID-19 patient's characteristics in Saudi Arabia are similar to many other nations. However, there is quite a high number of hospitalized patients admitted to the ICU. Also, the mortality rate is considered high despite the fact that obese patient's proportion is low, which is one of the main risk factors.