Co-morbidities and Complications in COVID-19 Recovered Patients in Bhilwara District, Rajasthan, India: A Descriptive Study

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) infection is associated with high rates of pulmonary and extrapulmonary complications that may continue to incur morbidity, disability and delayed mortality in survivors. These include hyperglycaemia, cardiac injury, acute ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke, neurological deficits, acute kidney injury and liver injury. Aim: To describe symptoms and complications being faced by COVID-19 recovered patients, as well their socio-demographic profile and co-morbidities. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted for the period of 12 months from April 2020-March 2021. Out of nearly 10,000 recovered COVID-19 patients, 1000 (calculated sample size) patients were selected randomly. The patients were categorised gender-wise (male and female) and locality-wise (urban and rural) and an attempt was made to find if any significant difference exists in the symptoms and complications based on above categorisation. The test used for this purpose was Chi-square test and Fisher’s-exact test. Results: Mean age of participants was 50.2±15.7 years and 43.8% had co-morbidities. Common complications included hyperglycaemia (n=28), acute kidney injury (n=8), acute liver injury (n=5), cardio-vascular accident and stroke (n=5), septicaemia (n=8), ischaemic heart disease (n=7), deep vein thrombosis (n=2), cytokine release syndrome (n=10) and post COVID-19 fibrosis (n=3). For septicaemia, a statistically significant difference (p<0.001) was found between urban and rural areas whereas no significant difference in post COVID-19 complications between males and females was observed. conclusion: The most common co-morbidity was diabetes mellitus and most common complication reported was hyperglycaemia.