TITLE:
Mortality and Associated Risk Factors among In-Patients with Covid-19 in Douala, Cameroon: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study
AUTHORS:
Francois Adrien Bokalli, Fru McWright Chi, Ephesians Anutebeh, Caven Ngoe, Mbachan Takere, Edwin Ewane, Dieudonne Akanji, Conrald Ekukole, Marie-Solange Ndom, Mireille-Laurent Endale, David Mekolo, Henry Luma, Jacqueline Ze Minkande, Marcelin Ngowe Ngowe
KEYWORDS:
COVID-19, Risk Factors, Mortality, Cameroon
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Infectious Diseases,
Vol.12 No.1,
January
21,
2022
ABSTRACT: Background: In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus disease 2019 a pandemic, this was caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2. The overall mortality from this remains high, yet there are limited studies assessing the associated factors in Africa. Objective: To identify the factors associated with mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Douala, Cameroon. Method: We conducted a single-centre retrospective cross-sectional study by reviewing records of patients managed for COVID-19 between March and June 2020. Diagnosis was confirmed by real-time RT-PCR. Outcome of interest was mortality during hospitalization. We inputted and analyzed data using SPSS version 25.0, compared mortality between groups using the Chi’s squared test and the Fisher’s exact test where appropriately investigated for associations using the Logistic regression in a stepwise approach and alpha-value set at P = 0.05. Results: We analyzed 282 case files, 68% were males (M:F = 2:1) and a mean age of 52 (±15) years. We had an overall mortality of 31.5% (89/282 patients) and 54% (50/92 patients) admitted in the ICU died. Patients aged 0 - 39 years had a significantly lesser odds of mortality compared to those > 70 years (OR: 0.2 (0.1 - 0.5) P Conclusion: The in-hospital mortality in COVID-19 patients is very high and hospitalisation into the ICU is associated with even higher mortality. Advanced age, diffused lung involvement (particularly with alveolar consolidation), hemodynamic instability at presentation and altered level of consciousness favoured hospitalisation in the ICU. Once in the ICU, placement on mechanical ventilation did not reduce death discernibly.