Table 1.
Baseline characteristics of participants with COVID-19 patients: intervention versus control group (N = 137)
| Variables | Intervention group n = 79 |
Control group n = 58 |
P valuea |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demographics | |||
| Age, mean (± SD) | 50.1 (10.5) | 51.5 (10.4) | 0.43 |
| Sex (men), n (%) | 55 (69.6) | 36 (62.1) | 0.36 |
| BMI, kg/m2, mean (± SD) |
25.7 (4.6) missing (n = 5) |
27.1 (5.4) missing (n = 9) |
0.17 |
| Employment status (employed) | 61 (77.8) |
47 (81) missing (n = 3) |
0.65 |
| Education | 0.63 | ||
| Secondary or above, n (%) | 69 (87.3) | 49 (84.5) | |
| Primary or no formal education, n (%) | 10 (12.7) | 9 (15.5) | |
| Current smoker (yes), n (%) | 15 (19) | 10 (17.2) | 0.86 |
| Haematological/biochemical data | |||
| Hemoglobin, gm/dL, mean (± SD) | 12.84 (2.1) | 12.67 (1.8) | 0.62 |
| Total WBC, mcL, mean (± SD) | 8260.8 (4073.1) | 9818.9 (4562.2) | 0.04 |
| Neutrophil, mcL, mean (± SD) |
6335.1 (3987.1) missing (n = 1) |
7533.3 (4287.9) | 0.10 |
| Lymphocytes, mcL, mean (± SD) |
1549.4 (735.6) missing (n = 1) |
1759.9 (1191.3) | 0.21 |
| SGPT, units /L, mean (± SD) |
50.45 (27.6) missing (n = 29) |
39.03 (27.5) missing (n = 19) |
0.06 |
| Serum D-Dimer, μg/ml,mean (± SD) |
0.41 (0.5) missing (n = 9) |
0.47 (0.4) missing (n = 20) |
0.48 |
| Serum ferritin, ng/ml, mean (± SD) |
293.6 (294.7) missing (n = 9) |
290.0 (367.8) missing (n = 20) |
0.95 |
| C-reactive protein, mg/L, mean (± SD) |
16.9 (27.9) missing (n = 9) |
19.7 (27.9) missing (n = 20) |
0.58 |
| Disease related data/comorbidities | |||
| Need of oxygen supplementation | 0.15 | ||
| 1–4 L/min, n (%) | 62 (78.5) | 51 (87.9) | |
| 5–10 L/min, n (%) | 17 (21.5) | 7 (12.1) | |
| Productive cough (yes), n (%) | 21(26.6) | 18 (31) | 0.57 |
| Able to clear secretions independently (yes), n (%) | 18 (22.8) | 18 (31) | 0.32 |
| COPD or other respiratory diseases, (yes), n (%) | 24 (30.4) | 18 (31) | 0.54 |
| Other major comorbidities | |||
| Type 2 diabetes, n (%) | 49 (62) | 40 (69) | 0.47 |
| Hypertension, n (%) | 51 (64.6) | 38 (65.5) | 0.52 |
| Ischemic heart disease, n (%) | 5 (6.3) | 6 (10.3) | 0.29 |
| Kidney diseases, n (%) | 6 (8.6) | 4 (6.9) | 0.49 |
| Liver diseases, n (%) | 2 (3.0) | 2 (3.4) | 0.63 |
| Malignant tumor, n (%) | 3 (4.5) | 0 (0) | 0.15 |
COVID-19, Coronavirus 2019; WBC, White blood cells; SGPT, Serum Glutamic-Pyruvic Transaminase (Liver Function Tests); COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. aDifferences were assessed with independent t test for continuous variables, and Pearson’s Chi-square tests for categorical variables