Relationship of clinical symptoms, comorbidities and treatment options along with disease outcomes in individuals tested for COVID-19 in Pakistan: a national survey

ABSTRACT

Background: This web-based survey is done to collect and assess data from people tested for COVID-19 with PCR in Pakistan. Methods: This 3-month study is a cross-sectional online survey, conducted by Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA), Health Research Advisory Board (HealthRAB) and National Institute of Health (NIH). Data collection was done using Google Forms. People who were tested for COVID-19 using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) were included in the study. The sample size of the study was 1,537. SPSS version 22 was used for data analysis. Results: Majority of the respondents belonged to the age group 20 - 39 years. The most common symptoms found were fever 633 (41%), cough 534 (34%), generalized body aches 432 (28%) and sore throat 392 (25%). The mean COVID-19 mental health score was 3.59 (SD 5.808, range 0-18). Treatment with antibiotics and painkillers had a strong correlation (p-value < 0.05) with the disease outcomes. The disease outcomes had moderate correlation (p-value < 0.05) with anti-allergy, steroids, plasma and oxygen therapy, and weak correlation (p-value < 0.05) with Antiviral and Antimalarial therapy. Out of the total respondents, 561 (36.1%) were cured from COVID-19, 14 (0.9%) were expired during/after hospitalization, 15 (1%) were still infected and 962 (62%) were not infected. Conclusion: Pakistani population has a better cure rate than some of its neighboring countries. However, further research in this area is required to draw a definite conclusion.