
Demographic and Clinical Status of COVID-19 Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Chengalpattu District, Tamil Nadu: An Observational Study
Correspondence Address :S Sujatha,
Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Chengalpattu Medical College, Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu, India.
E-mail: drsuja1980@gmail.com
Introduction: The ongoing outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection has posed significant threats to international health and economy. On 30th January 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared it to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Despite exponential rise of COVID-19 cases, there are limited studies on COVID19, so an observational study to assess the demographic and clinical status of COVID-19 patients at a Tertiary Care Centre was conducted.
Aim: To study the demographic and clinical status of COVID-19 patients in a tertiary care hospital in Chengalpattu district. To assess the co-morbid status and its influence on the outcome among the study population. To find the doubling rate and weekly trend of COVID-19 cases.
Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Chengalpattu Medical College Hospital, Chengalpattu district among the COVID-19 patients during April to June 2020. By nonprobability sampling technique (convenient sampling), all the COVID-19 patients (n=3028) admitted in the institution during the study period were included. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to collect the data.The questionnaire had three sections A, B, and C. Section A dealt with sociodemographic details, Section B with symptom status and co-morbidity status and section C with COVID test results. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Institutional Ethics Committee. Data was entered in MS Excel and analysis was done using SPSS Software.
Results: In this study, there were 1932 (64%) males and 1096 (36%) females; 1489 (49%) were affected in the age group of 21-40 years, which was the most commonly affected group; 704 (23%) were in the age group above 50 years; 2574 (85%) of cases were from urban areas of Chengalpattu district; 1145 (38%) were found to be symptomatic, fever being the predominant symptom 753 (66%); 712 (24%) of the patients were associated with co-morbid conditions, the most common being diabetes mellitus 391 (55%); mean duration of stay was found to be 9.21±3.26 days; doubling rate was found to be 18.91 days; the overall swab positivity rate was 14.56%; the overall case fatality rate was 2.47%; 3028 (59%) of the district cases were treated in the institution.
Conclusion: This study found that the patients aged >50 years with co-morbidity are at a higher risk of mortality than others. The present work predicts that the number of cases double in 19 days. Hence, strict containment measures are recommended to lengthen the doubling rate.
Anosmia, Breathlessness, Co-morbid, Coronavirus, India.
DOI: 10.7860/JCDR/2020/47012.14343
Date of Submission: Oct 01, 2020
Date of Peer Review: Oct 22, 2020
Date of Acceptance: Nov 18, 2020
Date of Publishing: Dec 15, 2020
AUTHOR DECLARATION:
• Financial or Other Competing Interests: None
• Was Ethics Committee Approval obtained for this study? Yes
• Was informed consent obtained from the subjects involved in the study? Yes
• For any images presented appropriate consent has been obtained from the subjects. Yes
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• Plagiarism X-checker: Oct 03, 2020
• Manual Googling: Nov 15, 2020
• iThenticate Software: Dec 10, 2020 (15%)
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