Prevalence of pneumonia by chest x-ray, associated demographic characteristics and health risk factors among COVID-19 patients in Ghana

Joseph A Oliver-Commey; Peter Puplampu; Christian Owoo; Kwame Asare-Boateng; Anita O Yawson; John Tetteh; Benedict N L Calys-Tagoe; Emilia Udofia; Ernest Kenu; Ali Samba; Alfred E Yawson; Margaret Lartey; COVID-19 Collaborators

doi:10.4314/gmj.v55i2s.4

Prevalence of pneumonia by chest x-ray, associated demographic characteristics and health risk factors among COVID-19 patients in Ghana

Ghana Med J. 2021 Jun;55(2 Suppl):21-28. doi: 10.4314/gmj.v55i2s.4.

Authors

Joseph A Oliver-Commey^{1

2

3}, Peter Puplampu^{1

4

5}, Christian Owoo^{1

3

6

7}, Kwame Asare-Boateng¹, Anita O Yawson^{1

8}, John Tetteh⁹, Benedict N L Calys-Tagoe⁹, Emilia Udofia⁹, Ernest Kenu¹⁰, Ali Samba¹¹, Alfred E Yawson⁹, Margaret Lartey⁴; COVID-19 Collaborators

Affiliations

¹ National COVID-19 Treatment Centre, Ga East Municipal Hospital, Ghana Health Service (GHS).
² LEKMA Hospital, Ghana Health Service.
³ National COVID-19 Case Management Team, Ghana.
⁴ Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Ghana Medical School, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Accra.
⁵ Pentecost Convention Centre- National CoOVID-19 Treatment Centre.
⁶ National COVID-19 Treatment Centre, University of Ghana Medical Centre, Accra.
⁷ Department of Anaesthesia, University of Ghana Medical School, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Accra.
⁸ Department of Anaesthesia, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana.
⁹ Department of Community Health, University of Ghana Medical School, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Accra.
¹⁰ Department of Epidemiology and Disease Control, School of Public Health, University of Ghana.
¹¹ Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology Department, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana.

Abstract

Objective: The study was conducted to determine the prevalence of radiologically diagnosed pneumonia among COVID-19 patients and associated factors.

Design setting and participants: A retrospective manual data extraction of 275 medical records of COVID-19 patients was conducted at two COVID-19 national treatment centres in Accra from March to May 2020. All patients had a chest x-ray done.

Main outcome and analysis: The main outcome was the presence of pneumonia. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square test of independence were employed to determine the associations between independent variables and the presence of pneumonia. All analysis was performed using Stata 16, and a p-value ≤ 0.05 was deemed significant.

Results: The prevalence of pneumonia was 44%(95%CI) =38.2-50.0). Chi-square independent test indicated that pneumonia in the COVID-19 patients was associated with educational level, history of domestic and international travel, mass gathering in the past 14 days before diagnosis, and discharge plan (p-value< 0.05). Patients classified as secondary cases (61.5%) and those discharged as fully recovered from the health facility (61.2%) had a higher prevalence of pneumonia. In addition, COVID-19 patients with hypertension (32.1%) and asthma (5.2%) had a significantly higher prevalence of pneumonia.

Conclusion: Overall, the prevalence of pneumonia was 44% and was associated with the demographic and personal characteristics of the patients. Early detection through contact tracing and community surveillance should be intensified to pick up more asymptomatic cases. The role of the chest x-ray for triaging patients and for clinical management of symptomatic patients remains key.

Funding: None declared.

Keywords: COVID-19; Ghana; chest X-ray; pneumonia; treatment Centres.

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / diagnostic imaging
COVID-19* / epidemiology
Ghana / epidemiology
Humans
Pneumonia* / diagnostic imaging
Pneumonia* / epidemiology
Prevalence
Retrospective Studies
Risk Factors
SARS-CoV-2
X-Rays