Determinants of Covid-19 Recovery Time among Patients Hospitalized to Treatment Center in North-Central Ethiopia

Novel coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), caused by the causative agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has become the consequential global health crisis and is one of the world leading causes of death. The current study was conducted to determine factors that affect time to recover from Covid-19 infection among patients hospitalized to the treatment center in North-Central Ethiopia. From May 9, 2020 to February 13, 2021, 352 patients suffering from Covid-19 infection and admitted to Boru Meda hospital Covid-19 treatment center were studied retrospectively. A Cox regression was used to analyze the socio-demographic and clinical factors that affect the recovery time. In the sample, about 30 percent of the patients recovered during the follow-up period, and the median time to recover was 19 days with a 95 percent confidence interval [17-21]. In addition, the recovery rate of patients with pre-existing conditions (HR=0.578; 95% CI: 0.370, 0.903), of patients aged 20-40 and above 40 (HR=0.567; 95% CI: 0.350, 0.919) and (HR=0.544; 95% CI: 0.301, 0.983), and patients receiving treatment (HR=0.626; 95% CI: 0.406, 0.936) were lower than their counterparts. In conclusion, the length of recovery from Covid-19 infection was delayed in patients with comorbidities, those who received treatment and those who were older. Keywords: Cox regression, Covid-19, Boru Meda hospital, Ethiopia, Time to recover DOI : 10.7176/JHMN/117-01 Publication date: July 30th 2024