Open AccessAssociation between incubation period and clinical characteristics of patients with COVID-19
Author(s) -
Yeyu Cai,
Jiayi Liu,
Haitao Yang,
Mian Wang,
Qinglai Guo,
Deng Huang,
Qizhi Yu,
Enhua Xiao
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of international medical research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.421
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1473-2300
pISSN - 0300-0605
DOI - 10.1177/0300060520956834
Subject(s) - incubation period , medicine , incubation , covid-19 , epidemiology , receiver operating characteristic , disease , severity of illness , biology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , biochemistry
Purpose To investigate associations between the clinical characteristics and incubation periods of patients infected with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Wuhan, China.Methods Complete clinical and epidemiological data from 149 patients with COVID-19 at a hospital in Hunan Province, China, were collected and retrospectively analyzed.Results Analysis of the distribution and receiver operator characteristic curve of incubation periods showed that 7 days was the optimal cut-off value to assess differences in disease severity between groups. Patients with shorter (≤7 days) incubation periods (n = 79) had more severe disease, longer durations of hospitalization, longer times from symptom onset to discharge, more abnormal laboratory findings, and more severe radiological findings than patients with longer (>7 days) incubation periods. Regression and correlation analyses also showed that a shorter incubation period was associated with longer times from symptom onset to discharge.Conclusion The associations between the incubation periods and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients suggest that the incubation period may be a useful marker of disease severity and prognosis.