Research Article

Risk Factors for COVID-19 Mortality in Epidemic Treatment Centres A Case-Control Study from Senegal’s Decentralised Regions

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic is an emerging viral zoonotic disease caused by SARS-CoV2. It causes a systemic infection in humans, mostly respiratory. Senegal’s Thi es Region announced their first case on March 14, 2020. The second epidemic wave, which occurred in 2021, was marked by high fatality, necessitating our investigation of the parameters linked with deaths among COVID-19 patients hospitalised at the Epidemic Treatment Centres (CTE) of the Regional Health Directorate of Thies. Patients and Methods: One case for every two controls in an unmatched case-control study of COVID-19 deaths that were reported in the Thi `es Regional Health Directorate between January 1 and December 31, 2021. All patients admitted to CTEs who had positive COVID-19 PCR/antigenic test results were included. All confirmed COVID-19 patients who passed away were called ”cases,” while all patients who recovered were called ”controls.” Standardised sociodemographic, clinical, therapeutic, and evolutionary data were gathered from patient files following a pilot study with quality control, and an extensive sampling of deaths was used. Kobo Collect was used to enter the data, and Epi Info7 was used for analysis. both qualitative (proportions) and quantitative (mean, standard deviation) variables. The following metrics were employed: chi2 or Fisher exact test, odds ratio, and significance level set at p¡0.05. Results: 348 individuals in all, 116 of whom died and 232 of whom recovered, were enrolled in the study. The average age of the deceased patients was 68.9 years +/- 14.24, while the average age of the recovered patients was 61.5 +/- 14.24. Both groups were primarily male. Asthenia (57.8/65.4%), fever (71.5/68.1%), and dyspnoea (98.3/84.49%) were the most prevalent clinical symptoms (cases/controls). in addition to cough (52.6/58.1). Acute respiratory distress (87.9/3.8%), pulmonary embolism (03.5/0%), and acute respiratory distress (11.2/0.4%) were the most common complications. Following multivariate analysis using logistic regression, the following factors were linked to deaths: male sex (OR: 4.11, 95% CI: 1.45 – 11.61 and p = 0.0076); patients older than 60 (OR=1.77, 95% CI: 1.0018-3.1438, p=0.049); complications like stroke (OR=31.00; 95% CI: 5.69-168.73 and p=0.0001), Acute respiratory distress syndrome (OR: 204.09 95% CI: 70.44-591.30 and p = 0.000) and shock (OR22.61; 95% CI: 1.44-353.67 and p=0.026). Conclusion: Age, male gender, the presence of complications; stroke in particular, the state of Shock and ARDS; these are the elements linked to COVID-19 deaths in the CTEs of Thies Region.