Independent predictor variables
A reduced set of potential predictor variables was selected a priori, including patient demographic information, common clinical investigations, and parameters consistently identified as clinically important in covid-19 cohorts following the methods described by Wynants and colleagues (appendix 2).5 Candidate predictor variables were selected based on three common criteria15: patient and clinical variables known to influence outcome in pneumonia and flulike illness; clinical biomarkers previously identified within the literature as potential predictors in patients with covid-19; values available for at least two thirds of patients within the derivation cohort.
Because our overall aim was to develop an easy-to-use risk stratification score, we made the decision to include an overall comorbidity count for each patient within model development giving each comorbidity equal weight, rather than individual comorbidities. Recent evidence suggests an additive effect of comorbidity in patients with covid-19, with increasing number of comorbidities associated with poorer outcomes.16