Survival of asthma patients attended at Chitungwiza Central Hospital in Zimbabwe

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Asthma is a leading global public health problem. Itis estimated that 300 thousand people die annually from asthma worldwide. In Zimbabwe 9/100 000 population died from asthma in 2014, accounting for 1.02% of total deaths. The association between asthma survival and socio-demographic and pathologic factors has not been evaluated in Zimbabwe. The purpose of our study was to determine the survival of patients with asthma at Chitungwiza Central Hospital, Zimbabwe over a period of 20 years (1997 to 2017). METHODS: records for 158 asthma patients were analysed in this retrospective cohort study. The patient records were sampled from the computerised health information department at the hospital. Data were collected using a patient record checklist that was divided into four sections: (i) demographic information, (ii) clinical characteristics of asthma patients, (iii) health service utilization and (iv) asthma self-management. Descriptive data analysis was performed using the Kaplan Meier survival function curves. The Kaplan Meier survival curves were differentiated by the log-rank test, median survival times and mortality rates. Significant hazard ratios were used for multivariate cox regression model and a test on proportional hazards assumption based on Schoenfeld residuals were conducted. RESULTS: the total follow-up time was 2208 person years. The study showed that 94/153(61.4%) had since died. The median age at death was 25.5 years (IQR; 21-34). Smoking history [p=