Risk Factors and Major Symptoms in COVID-19 Suspected Patients: A Single-Center Study in Bangladesh

Abstract

Background: The outbreak of Covid 19 started in China in December 2019 and from then it rapidly spread around the whole world. Know a day, knowledge on the risk factors as well as the major symptoms of Covid 19 for its early detection and successful treatment of suspected Covid 19 patients. Aim of the Study: The aim of this study was to assess the risk factors and major symptoms in covid-19 suspected patients. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study and was conducted in the Department of Medicine, Shahabuddin Medical College Hospital, Gulshan, Dhaka, Bangladesh, during the period from November 2020 to March 2022. In total 126 suspected Covid 19 patients attended the mentioned hospital during the study period were selected as the study people. Data were collected from patients and/or their attendants through direct or telephonic interview by using a pre-designed questioner. The statistical analysis was done by the SPSS version 22.0. Results: In this study, in analyzing the risk factors among the participants we observed that, 10% and 7% were with ‘recent exposure to a Covid 19 patient’ and the ‘higher length of symptoms before the indexing’ respectively which were noticeable. Besides these, 6%, another 6%, 3% and 2% were with Bilateral lung infiltrates, peripheral lung infiltrates, Neutrophil count <7.5 × 103/L and LDH > 500 U/L respectively. As the major symptoms, the highest number of participants was with cough which was found among 54%. Besides this, 38%, 23% and 17% patients were found with shortness of breath, Hypoxemia/Oxygen use and lower limb swelling respectively. Conclusion: As per the findings of this current study we can conclude that, the ‘recent exposure to a Covid 19 patient’ and the ‘higher length of symptoms before starting treatment, may be considered as the most potential risk factors for suspected Covid 19 patients. On the other hand, cough is the most common symptoms for suspected Covid 19 patients.