Prevalence of pneumonia by chest x-ray, associated demographic characteristics and health risk factors among COVID-19 patients in Ghana.

Joseph A Oliver-Commey,Alfred E Yawson,Margaret Lartey,Ali Samba,Christian Owoo,Ernest Kenu,John Tetteh,Kwame Asare-Boateng,Peter Puplampu,Emilia Udofia,Anita O Yawson,Benedict N L Calys-Tagoe

doi:10.4314/gmj.v55i2s.4

Joseph A Oliver-Commey, Alfred E Yawson + Show 10 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4314/gmj.v55i2s.4

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Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the prevalence of radiologically diagnosed pneumonia among COVID-19 patients and associated factors. A retrospective manual data extraction of 275 medical records of COVID-19 patients was conducted at two COVID-19 national treatment centres in Accra from March to May 2020. All patients had a chest x-ray done. The main outcome was the presence of pneumonia. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square test of independence were employed to determine the associations between independent variables and the presence of pneumonia. All analysis was performed using Stata 16, and a p-value ≤ 0.05 was deemed significant. The prevalence of pneumonia was 44%(95%CI) =38.2-50.0). Chi-square independent test indicated that pneumonia in the COVID-19 patients was associated with educational level, history of domestic and international travel, mass gathering in the past 14 days before diagnosis, and discharge plan (p-value< 0.05). Patients classified as secondary cases (61.5%) and those discharged as fully recovered from the health facility (61.2%) had a higher prevalence of pneumonia. In addition, COVID-19 patients with hypertension (32.1%) and asthma (5.2%) had a significantly higher prevalence of pneumonia. Overall, the prevalence of pneumonia was 44% and was associated with the demographic and personal characteristics of the patients. Early detection through contact tracing and community surveillance should be intensified to pick up more asymptomatic cases. The role of the chest x-ray for triaging patients and for clinical management of symptomatic patients remains key. None declared.

Highlights

The newly emerging COVID-19 disease is a highly infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).The disease which attacks the lungs and other organs in humans[1] has been declared a public health emergency of international concern.www.ghanamedj.org Volume 55 Number 2 supplement June 2021In late December 2019, a cluster of patients were diagnosed with pneumonia of an unknown cause in Wuhan, China.[2]
Design and Data Source Retrospective record review was conducted, and data used for the analysis were manually extracted from the medical records of COVID-19 patients in two national treatment centres in Accra, the Ga East Municipal Hospital and University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC), from March when patients were admitted to the health facilities to May 2020
Patients classified as secondary cases, those discharged based on full recovery and those with no history of smoking and alcohol intake had a relatively higher proportion with pneumonia (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

The newly emerging COVID-19 disease is a highly infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).The disease which attacks the lungs and other organs in humans[1] has been declared a public health emergency of international concern.www.ghanamedj.org Volume 55 Number 2 supplement June 2021In late December 2019, a cluster of patients were diagnosed with pneumonia of an unknown cause in Wuhan, China.[2]. The newly emerging COVID-19 disease is a highly infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The disease which attacks the lungs and other organs in humans[1] has been declared a public health emergency of international concern. In late December 2019, a cluster of patients were diagnosed with pneumonia of an unknown cause in Wuhan, China.[2] On January 3rd, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) was informed about an outbreak of pneumonia of viral origin associated with humans in Wuhan, China.[3,4] International movements have contributed to the rapid spread of the disease globally and have resulted in significant morbidity and mortality. In Ghana, a total of 23,463 confirmed cases, 129 deaths, and 18,622 recoveries have been reported during the same period.[5]

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