Travel History Based Symptom Analysis of COVID-19 Patients

Abstract

Background: A meager amount of literature is present on the relationship of different COVID-19 symptoms in various regions of the world. Individuals who have been infected with strains from abroad and are traveling to Pakistan inadvertently create a distinction in terms of the strain causing the illness among patients. The local elements, such as climate, remain consistent for all cases.

Objectives:  To test if there lies any varying symptomatology among foreign travelers and non-travelers.

Materials & Methods: This comparative retrospective study was carried out among patients visiting the Infectious Diseases Department at Holy Family Hospital, Rawalpindi, using simple random sampling. A Self-structured questionnaire was used comprising of socio-demographic details, presenting Complaints and details of comorbidities. Only confirmed COVID-19 patients, through laboratory testing (PCR) and Chest X-ray findings, were included in this study. The patients were divided into two groups: without traveling history (local cases) and with foreign traveling history. The Cronbach’s alpha was 0.73, indicating reliable internal consistency. Continuous variables were compared using Mann–Whitney U test, and enumeration variables were compared by Pearson χ2 or Fisher exact test, where appropriate.

Results: Out of 81 patients, 62(76.5%) were non-travelers, and 19 (23.5%) were travelers. Among travelers, 15 (78.9%) were vitally stable, while 4 (21.1%) were unstable at the time of presentation. Out of the 32 (39.6%) with multiple symptoms, 6 (31.6%) were travelers, while 26 (41.9%) were non-travelers. However, there was neither statistically significant difference between presenting complaints nor number of symptoms among the study groups (p>.05).

Conclusion: There was a difference in frequency of presenting symptoms among COVID-19 patients including both travelers and non-travelers, but this difference was not statistically significant.