A Study on Morbidity Patterns amongst Hospitalized Patients Attending a New Tertiary Care Institute, India

Abstract

Background: The pattern of morbidity reflects the burden of disease in a particular community. This pattern shows
geographic variations between communities and countries. The knowledge of the pattern of diseases in a given country is very important in evaluating its health care delivery system. Such knowledge is important for health planning and for improving the healthcare services in that particular nation. We set out to study the morbidity pattern in our medical wards. Materials and methods: This is a retrospective study that reviewed the causes of morbidity amongst admitted cases from January 2014 to December 2014. The data were obtained from the medical record section. Data were analyzed using software Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16. Results: A total of 19,609 patients were admitted during the study period. Of these males were 10,556 (53.8%) and females were 9,053 (46.2%). Out of the total cases, 19203 patients (97.9%) were discharged or relieved as cured, 210 patients (1.1%) had expired. The sex ratio was 858 females to 1,000 males. Of the most common causes of morbidities/system involved (ICD.10) in males, chronic ischemic heart disease (4.7%) was the leading cause followed by live born infants (3.8%), hypertension (3.7%), lymphoid leukemia (2.7%) and malignant neoplasm of brain (2.1%). In females, malignant neoplasm of breast (6.2%) was the leading cause followed by delivery by caesarean section (4.9%), live born infants (3.8%), secondary malignant neoplasm of other and unspecified sites (3.1%) and hypertension (2.4%). Overall bed occupancy rate (BOR) for all patients was 66.8 percent. Conclusion: Morbidity in the medical wards reflects the emerging trend of mixed disease spectrum burden comprising communicable and non-communicable diseases. Public health education, raising the socio-economic status of our people and as well as improving the standards of our health care facilities and personnel can contribute towards bringing down morbidity and mortality rates from medical wards.