Table 2. Characteristics of hospitalized COVID-19 patients and their pre-infection measurement of 25(OH)D levels, stratified by COVID-19 disease severity category.
| No. (%) | p value 2-sided (between groups) | p value 2-sided (severe/critical vs. mild/moderate disease) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristics | COVID-19 disease severity category (WHO) | ||||||
| Mild | Moderate | Severe | Critical | ||||
| No. of patients | 80 (31.6) | 86 (34.0) | 74 (29.2) | 13 (5.1) | |||
| Age, y | |||||||
| mean (std) | 53.1 (19.8) | 64.2 (16.4) | 72.1 (14.7) | 76.0 (11.6) | p < 0.001§ | p < 0.001^ | |
| Range | 19.3–90.0 | 30.4–95.9 | 28.8–94.9 | 52.6–92.1 | |||
| <50 | 36 (45.0) | 19 (22.1) | 6 (8.1) | 0 (0.0) | p < 0.001§ | p < 0.001† | |
| 50–64 | 20 (25.0) | 27 (31.4) | 18 (24.3) | 1 (7.7) | |||
| ≥65 | 24 (30.0) | 40 (46.5) | 50 (67.6) | 12 (92.3) | |||
| Sex | |||||||
| Female | 51 (63.7) | 53 (61.6) | 35 (47.3) | 5 (38.5) | p = 0.08 | p = 0.01 | |
| Male | 29 (36.3) | 33 (38.4) | 39 (52.7) | 8 (61.5) | |||
| Ethnicity | |||||||
| Arabs | 49 (62) | 55 (64.0) | 37 (52.9) | 10 (76.9) | p = 0.30 | p = 0.34 | |
| Non-Arabs | 30 (38) | 31 (36) | 33 (47.1) | 3 (23.1) | |||
| Pre-infection 25(OH)D level (ng/mL) evaluated 14–730 days before positive COVID-19 test | |||||||
| median | 34.2 | 18.9 | 11.3 | 10.0 | |||
| Range | 10.0–83.6 | 5.6–158 | 5.7–67.4 | 6.2–22.2 | |||
| <20 | 7 (8.8) | 50 (58.1) | 64 (86.5) | 12 (92.3) | p < 0.001 § | p < 0.001† | |
| 20–29.9 | 8 (10) | 24 (27.9) | 3 (4.1) | 1 (7.7) | |||
| 30–39.9 | 37 (46.2) | 3 (3.5) | 4 (5.4) | 0 (0.0) | |||
| ≥40 | 28 (35.0) | 9 (10.5) | 3 (4.0) | 0 (0.0) | |||
| BMI | |||||||
| mean (std) | 27.5 (5.9) | 27.6 (4.5) | 29.2 (5.1) | 32(4.3) | |||
| <30 | 66 (82.5) | 69 (80.2) | 55 (74.3) | 8 (61.5) | p = 0.28‡ | p = 0.11 | |
| ≥30 | 14 (17.5) | 17 (19.8) | 19 (25.7) | 5 (38.5) | |||
| Mortality during hospitalization | 0 (0.0) | 1 (1.2) | 26 (35.1) | 11 (84.6) | p < 0.001‡ | p < 0.001 | |
Abbreviations: BMI, body mass index (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared); COVID-19. Patients included were those admitted for COVID-19 between Apr 7th, 2020 and Feb 4th, 2021 who had serum 25(OH)D level measured between 14–730 days before the positive COVID-19 test. The most recent 25(OH)D result was used for the purpose of the study.
P values were determined using the Pearson Chi-Square test unless mentioned otherwise.
^ p values were determined using the independent t-test.
‡ P values were determined using the Fisher-Freeman-Halton Exact Test.
§ P values were determined using Kruskal-Wallis Test.
† P values were determined using Mann-Whitney Test.