Prevalence and associated factors of COVID-19 patients attending the fever clinic at Vajira Hospital
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Abstract
This cross-sectional descriptive study aimed to determine the prevalence of
COVID-19 infection and to analyze the association between sociodemographic
characteristics and clinical symptoms with RT-PCR test results among patients
attending the fever clinic at Vajira Hospital. Medical records of patients who
visited the clinic between April 1 and July 31, 2021 were reviewed. A total of 390
cases were included in the study. Data were analyzed using the chi-square test
and logistic regression.
The results revealed that the prevalence of COVID-19 infection among the sample
was 11.8% (46 cases). Sociodemographic factors such as gender, age and
occupation were not significantly associated with RT-PCR results. However,
certain clinical symptoms showed a statistically significant positive association
with RT-PCR positivity, including tachycardia (heart rate>100 bpm; OR=2.554,
p=0.047), tachypnea (respiratory rate>20 bpm; OR=5.051, p=0.005), sore
throat (OR=4.962, p=0.002) and productive sputum (OR=54.234, p<0.001).
Although symptoms such as elevated body temperature (>37.5°C), cough,
myalgia, runny nose, dyspnea, headache, loss of appetite and anosmia were more
frequently observed among COVID-19 positive patients, no statistically significant
associations were found with RT-PCR results in this study.
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