Predictors of ICU Length of Stay in Patients with COVID-19: A Retrospective Study

The available evidence has made the long-term accompaniment of COVID-19 and its other variants with human life predictable. Different studies have proposed different and, in some cases, contradictory findings as factors determining the duration of hospitalization of patients with COVID-19. The present study aimed to identify the factors related to the duration of ICU length in patients with COVID-19.

The present study retrospectively analyzed the data related to patients aged 1 to 97 years with COVID-19 registered in Isfahan's COVID-19 registration system. The data of those patients with COVID-19 who were alive at the time of discharge (n=453) were analyzed in the present study. Information related to laboratory findings, clinical data, and co-morbidities were collected. T-test, correlation, and analysis of variance tests were used in crude analysis. The linear regression model was used to determine the factors related to the ICU length and their importance.

The mean (SD) of intensive care unit days was 0.64 (2.39). Higher than normal values of INR, hemoglobin, and creatinine increased the average length of stay in ICU by 2.45 (p=0.001), 3.82 (p <0.001), and 0.72 (p <0.001) days, respectively. Among underlying co-morbidities, the presence of other respiratory diseases significantly increased the average length of stay in the ICU by 1.5 days (p=0.024). Standardized regression coefficients also showed that higher-than-normal hemoglobin and increased WBC values were the most important variables predicting ICU hospitalization length.

The higher-than-normal values of hemoglobin and increased WBC values are the most important predictors of the length of hospitalization in the ICU. The findings of the present study can be helpful in the decision-making of specialists to reduce the duration of hospitalization in the ICU and to help diagnose more critical cases.