Abstract:
During the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019, a considerable difference in
clinical characteristics, disease severity and outcomes observed among patients treated in
different centers. But there is no study done in Hiwot Fana specialized university Hospital,
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Eastern Ethiopia that assessed the clinical characteristics, risk factors for disease severity and
outcomes of Coronavirus 2019 admitted adult patients.
Objective: The study aimed to assess the clinical characteristics, risk factors for severity and
outcomes of Coronavirus 2019 adult patients admitted to Hiwot Fana specialized University
Hospital
Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted from November to December
2021 on randomly selected sample of 402 Coronavirus 2019 adult patients admitted to Hiwot
Fana hospital. Data about sociodemographic, clinical characteristics, laboratory, treatment and
outcomes were collected by reviewing medical record of patients. The data was tabulated,
cleaned and entered in to Epidata version 3.2 and exported to SPSS version 22 for analysis.
Discrete variables were summarized by percentages and frequencies whereas continuous
variables were summarized by medians and 25th and 75th quartile. The statistical inference was
done using t-test and Pearson’s Chi square for continuous and categorical variables
respectively. Statistical significance was measured by p-values < 0.05 and adjusted odds ratio
with 95% confidence interval. Both ordinal and binary logistic regression was done to determine
independent risk factors for severity and predictors outcome.
Results: In this retrospective cross-sectional study of 402 admitted COVID-19 adult patients
with median age of 46 years, male accounts for 60.8%. comorbidity was present in 55.2% of
patients, the most common being hypertension (32.6%), diabetes (25.9%), cardiac (16.9%),
asthma (5.5%), HIV and COPD in 5% each. Among 402 patients 83.8% were symptomatic at
presentation, the most common symptoms were fatigue (73%), cough (69.1%), fever (67 %),
headache (54.9%) and Shortness of breath (51.9%). The spectrum of disease severity is
asymptomatic 65(16.2), non-severe 111(27.5%) severe 124(30.8%), and critical 102(25.4%).
overall, 19.2% died. Older age, hypertension, DM, tachypnea, presence of shortness of breath
and chest pain, lower oxygen saturation, lymphopenia and higher creatinine were independent
predictors of disease severity and outcome.
Conclusion: The study showed that proportion of patients with severe and critical disease and
mortality rate is high; older age, comorbidity, shortness of breath, chest pain, admission
respiratory rate and oxygen saturation, lymphopenia and elevated creatinine are independent
predictors of severity and outcome
