Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 in a community cohort from District II of Managua, Nicaragua

Abstract

In December 2019, in Wuhan, China, a new virus causing respiratory syndrome of lower respiratory tract infection was discovered, causing hospitalizations and deaths, to date more than 6 million people have died worldwide. The disease was named COVID-19 by the WHO. At the Central American level and in Nicaragua, the behavior of COVID-19 at the community level has not yet been described, which is why this study characterizes the clinical epidemiological behavior of COVID-19 in neighborhoods of district II. In the months of April 2021 to March 2022, a descriptive, retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted, the sample was 320 patients with a positive result to SARS-CoV-2, to whom a questionnaire was applied. The main results showed that the female sex was the most affected, the most affected ages were children from 10 to 19 years, and the least affected from 50 to 59, students were the ones who showed more positive cases, the predominant symptoms were fever, cough, rhinorrhea, headache and sore throat mainly. Secondary, asymptomatic and symptomatic cases were identified from primary cases. The most frequent chronic diseases in this population were diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension, coronary diseases, being obese, overweight or eutrophic were statistically significant with having COVID-19. These results clearly allow us to evaluate the epidemiological behavior of COVID-19 at the community level, which is expected to be useful for new studies or projects on the management of the disease in the region.