Mortality from COVID-19 and late diagnosis in the early stages of the pandemic in Bolívar-Colombia

Abstract

Introduction: Patients who died from COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic show particular clinical-epidemiological characteristics and their identification as well as the aspects associated with the diagnosis are fundamental for the implementation of public health strategies that allow the sanitary protection of the most vulnerable groups.

Objective: To determine the clinical-epidemiological characteristics of patients who died from COVID-19 and its association with late diagnosis in the early stages of the pandemic in the department of Bolívar-Colombia.

Material and Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study with a sample of 51 patients who died from COVID-19; the relative frequency of the clinical-epidemiological risk factors of these patients was calculated and a bivariate analysis was performed to show the association with the possibility of being diagnosed after death, using the disparity ratio (OR) with its confidence interval.

Results: The 47,2 % of the diagnoses were made after death; the average between the onset of symptoms and death was approximately 13 days, in which heart disease (58,5 %) and hypertension (35,8 %) were evidenced as important comorbidities. The association with diagnosis after death is related to the cases reported in April and May (p = 0.03), being older than 80 years (p = 0.03) and having malnutrition (p = 0.04).

Conclusion: In the context of the department of Bolívar, failures are observed in the timely diagnosis of some vulnerable population groups, thus special attention should be paid to patients with heart disease to avoid high mortality.