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COVID-19 and Comorbidities in Douala, Cameroon

2022; Sciencedomain International; Linguagem: Inglês

10.9734/ijtdh/2022/v43i1730658

2278-1005

Osée Loteri, Arlette Flore Moguem Sobgui, Loick Pradel Kojom Foko, Wilfried Steve Ndeme Mboussi, Christiane Medi Sike, Elisee Libert Embolo Enyegue, Martin Luther Koanga Mogtomo,

Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

Aims: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) still negatively impacting the world. This study aimed at determining the prevalence of COVID-19 and comorbidities, associated factors, and evaluating the impact of these comorbidities on COVID-19 patients. Study Design: Cross-sectional hospital-based study. Place and Duration of Study: From January to March 2022, the present study was conducted at four health facilities in Douala town (Littoral Region, Cameroon). Methodology: Anthropometric, bioimpedance, physiological, blood and nasopharyngeal samples were used for diagnosing COVID-19, hepatitis B virus, diabetes, obesity and hypertension. SARS-CoV-2 genome were detected by retrotranscriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Data were analyzed with StatView v5 and GraphPad v5.03 software, and statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Results: A total of 178 patients, 139 Cameroonian and 39 foreigners, were finally included in the study. Lower COVID-19 vaccination coverage was seen in Cameroonians compared to foreigners (25.2% vs 43.6%, P = .02). No COVID-19 infection cases were found. The overall prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, obesity and HBV was 11.2%, 17.9%, 28.1% and 36.5%, respectively. Nearly 35% of patients were diagnosed with at least two of these comorbidities that significantly impacted on anthropometric, bioimpedance and physiological parameters. The risk of past COVID-infection was increased by 1.06 (95%CI 1.00 – 1.10, P = .03) and 2.81 (95%CI 1.65 – 5.77, P = .04) with one-unit increase in age and BMI, respectively. In contrast, risk of past COVID-19 infection was decreased by 94% (AOR = 0.06, 95%CI 0.01 – 0.76, P = .03) in foreigners compared to Cameroonians. Conclusion: This study outlines the importance to manage comorbidities in context of COVID-19 in Cameroon. Further studies should be conducted with more documented investigations about their epidemiology and impact on the natural history of COVID-19 in the country.