Pattern of medical admissions in a tertiary facility in North-East Nigeria: A 5-year review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4314/wnjms.v8i1.4Keywords:
Morbidity pattern, Inpatients, Medical wards, NigeriaAbstract
Introduction: The knowledge of morbidity pattern and its outcome is important for monitoring and evaluation of clinical practice. It is also essential for healthcare authorities to improve on services provided to the populace and for planning purposes. This study determined the morbidity pattern and outcome of patients admitted to the medical wards of a tertiary facility in North-East, Nigeria.
Methods: This was a retrospective study of admissions to the medical wards of the Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe, Nigeria, between 2012 and 2016. The medical records of patients were retrieved and reviewed. Information obtained included demography, diagnosis, comorbid conditions and outcome of admission. The diagnoses were classified using the World Health Organisation (WHO) International Classification of Diseases (ICD) Version 11. Simple descriptive analysis was done.
Results: A total of 5176 patients were admitted in the medical wards of the hospital comprising of more female and married patients (53.3% and 84.5% respectively). The mean age was 46.8 ± 17.9 with 45-54 years age bracket forming the largest proportion of patients. The most common cause for admission to the was infections (28.2%), followed by cardiovascular and renal diseases (23.8% and 12.7% respectively). Overall mortality was 20.7%.
Conclusion: Non-communicable diseases were the major causes of medical admissions in this study though the proportion of infectious conditions was high. There is need to promote the preventive aspect of medicine to reduce the scourge of non-communicable diseases among the populace.
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