www.medjpps.com Mediterranean Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences ISSN: 2789-1895 _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Omran et al. Mediterr J Pharm Pharm Sci. 2(1): 38-45, 2022 Page | 38-45 Original research Potential risk factors for mortality in patients with COVID-19: A retrospective study Entesar A.A. Omran 1* , Amal M.A. Alshebani 1 , Osama H. Almajdoub 2 1 Faculty of Medicine, University of Zawia, Zawia, Libya 2 National Medical Research Center, Zawia, Libya * Corresponding author: e.omran@zu.edu.ly https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-0159-6219 Received: 10-01-2022, Revised: 31-01-2022, Accepted: 10-02-2022, Published: 31-03-2022 Copyright: Copyright © 2022 Omran et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. HOW TO CITE THIS: Omran et al. (2022) Potential risk factors for mortality in patients with COVID-19: A retrospective study. Mediterr J Pharm Pharm Sci. 2 (1): 38-45. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.0000000 Abstract: Although severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection caused more than five million deaths throughout the world and more than five thousand deaths in Libya, a little is known about the mortality rate and the risk factors for death from this serious infectious disease in Libya. Thus, it is aimed in this study to identify the potential risk factors for mortality from SARS-CoV-2 infections among 176 Libyan COVID-19 patients in Zawia city. This research is a retrospective cohort study that was conducted on 176 randomly selected volunteers who had been infected with SARS-CoV-2 during a period of December 2020 to February 2021 in Zawia city, Libya. Following filling the prepared validated questionnaire by COVID-19 patients, the data was analyzed to determine the previously mentioned risk factors. The mean age (SD) of the total 176 participated COVID-19 patients was 45.06 (± 17.7) and the mortality rate among these total involved cases (mild to severe cases) was 10.8%. It is found that the mortality among the severe COVID- 19 cases was 41.3% and the mean age (SD) of COVID-19 deaths was 69.1 years (13.8) and 73.7% of them were 60 years old or older. In addition, it is found that 63.2% of the SARS-CoV-2 deaths were females and 78.9% of them had a positive history of chronic diseases. Moreover, it was found that the most common chronic diseases among COVID-19 deaths are diabetes mellitus and hypertension (73.3% and 53.3%, respectively). Collectively, it is concluded that COVID-19 elderly female patients aging 60 years or older with a positive history of chronic disease are more likely at high risk for death from SARS-CoV-2 infection among the participated COVID cases. Keywords: COVID-19, Libya, mortality, risk factors, SARS-CoV-2, Zawia Introduction Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is still ongoing serious pandemic trouble that frustrating all over the world since December 2019 [1]. It has affected more than 307 million people worldwide with approximately over five million deaths as of January 10, 2022 [1]. Although of presence of several routes for transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection, the airborne droplets remain the main route of SARS- CoV-2 transmission. The clinical features of the disease range from mild symptoms to severe or life-threatening that might result in loss of life. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and multi-organ dysfunction were found to be the major causes of mortality and morbidity in COVID-19 patients [2 - 5]. In Libya, the first case of COVID-19 was reported on March 24, 2020 [6]. To date, there have been over 393 000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with approximately 5 800