Epidemiological Study of COVID-19 Infections: Case of Ga East Municipal Hospital Treatment Centre - Kwabenya-Ghana

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic still poses a considerable threat to global health, resulting in an unprecedented demand for regular research to continuously identify and update its risk profiles to ensure relevant interventions.

Objectives

This study aimed to examine the epidemiological characteristics of the COVID-19 outbreak in Ghana and identify risk factors for severe COVID-19 disease.

Method

This was a cross-sectional study involving the data of patients with COVID-19 clinically managed at the Ga-East Municipal Hospital, the main COVID-19 treatment centre in Ghana, from 21st March to 21st June 2020. The data were retrieved from the electronic medical records and folders of the patients. It included sociodemographic characteristics, COVID-19 disease severity, and treatment outcomes. Binomial logistic regression was used to identify risk factors of severe COVID-19 illness.

Result

Among the 360 COVID-19 cases in this study, 55.3% were males, and 44.7% were females. Their mean age was 39.9±16.7years. Most of them were Ghanaians (92.8%) and employed (72.5%). The majority (93%) presented with mild disease, and hypertension (19.2%) was the most common comorbidity. The average length of hospital admission was 10.6±6.4day. Many of the cases recovered (98.6%), resulting in a case fatality of 1.4%. Finally, the logistic regression showed that increasing age (OR=1.12, p= 0.002) and diabetes mellitus (OR=19.85, p=0.007) are risk factors for severe COVID-19 disease.

Conclusion

Findings from the study confirmed that increasing age and diabetes mellitus are risk factors for severe COVID-19 disease. Thus, Ghana could prioritise these identified populations when implementing interventions to reduce the COVID-19 disease burden.

Strength and limitations of this study

• This study is one of the few studies exploring the risk factors for severe COVID-19 disease in Ghana; thus, it presents novel context-specific findings that could inform COVID-19 case management in Ghana.

• The study was limited in drawing a causal association between the explanatory and outcome variables due to the cross-sectional design.

• The study included only one COVID-19 treatment centre. Consequently, the findings may not be generalizable to the entire COVID-19 population in Ghana, even though the included centre is the main COVID-19 treatment centre.