Treatment Outcomes in COVID-19 patients with comorbidities in Kaduna state, Northwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Severe COVID-19 disease has been reported among people with underlying conditions such as diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases,  cancer, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. This study determined the outcomes of COVID19 among patients with comorbidities in Kaduna state, where  we have the highest incidence in northern Nigeria.

Methods: This study was a retrospective, descriptive cross-sectional review of the clinical records  involving all age groups of 902 COVID-19 patients admitted at the four isolation centers of the Kaduna State Infectious Disease Control Centre (IDCC)  between March 27th 2020 to December 31st 2021. Data was analyzed with SPSS version 25 and STATA SE 12 with p <0.05.

Results: Out of the 902 cases,  245 (27.2%) had comorbidities, hypertension 206(22.8%) was the most recorded comorbidity, others were diabetes 77(8.5%), asthma 7 (0.78%), HIV  7(0.78%), sickle cell anemia 7 (0.78%) and PTB 3 (0.33%). Patients with comorbidities had prolonged mean duration of symptoms 8.36±3.5 days, compared  to 7.2±2.7 days in those without comorbidities (p=0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis further shows that the odds for clinical recovery from the COVID-19 disease was significantly lower for patient with hypertension (AOR=0.13, 95%CI=0.06- 0.27, p = <0.01), diabetic (AOR=0.20,  95% CI=0.10-0.40, p<0.01) and HIV comorbidities (AOR=0.1, 95%CI=0.01-0.98, p=0.05) compared to those without comorbidities

Conclusion: Hypertension  and diabetes were the major comorbidities in this study. Most patients with comorbidities had severe presentations and fatal poorer  outcome. There is a need for sustained public health education targeted at patients with chronic diseases to be screened and treated early for COVID 19  Disease.