Impact of Comorbidity Burden on Mortality in Patients With COVID-19: A Retrospective Analysis of the Korean Health Insurance Database

The study analyzed data from 7,590 COVID-19 patients in South Korea to assess the impact of comorbidities on mortality. It found that 227 patients (3.0%) died, and identified hypertension, diabetes mellitus, congestive heart failure, dementia, chronic pulmonary disease, liver, renal issues, and cancer as significant risk factors for mortality after adjusting for age and sex. The age-adjusted Charlson comorbidity index (ACCI) was a strong predictor of mortality, with a threshold of ≥4 providing the best cut-off point (area under the ROC 0.92). The study highlighted the importance of age and comorbidities in determining COVID-19 severity.