Potentially Avoidable Hospitalizations at Grand Yoff General Hospital, Senegal

BACKGROUND: PAHs are necessary hospitalizations that could be prevented by appropriate primary care. They are mainly attributable to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which are increasing, especially in developing countries. The objective of this research was to evaluate the epidemiological burden of the PAHs at Grand Yoff General Hospital.

METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study was carried out in 2015. The population consisted of all patients hospitalized from April to August 2015, except those who were admitted to surgery, maternity or neonatology departments. This was a comprehensive study; the cases were represented by patients admitted for diabetes, high blood pressure, pulmonary disease, chronic kidney disease or stroke.

RESULTS: A total of 739 hospitalizations were recorded in the targeted services, including 110 cases of PAHs (14.88%). Pulmonary disease was slightly more frequent (4.74%), followed by diabetes (4.08%), stroke (3.65%), then chronic kidney disease (1.35%) and high blood pressure (1.08%). The average age of cases was 57 ±17.49 years and 54.5% of patients were 60 years of age or older, the sex ratio was 0.96, the married 68.2%, and the widowed 20%. About 34% of the patients were uneducated and 24% had just a primary school level. Only 8.2% were employed, while 43% were housewives and 23% were retired. 70% got a monthly income less than 100 USD. The median length of stay was 5 days. The level of awareness of the severity of the disease had improved significantly, from 37.3% at entry to 71.8% at the end of the stay (p <0.01). That was the same for the level of information about the means of preventing disease prevention, from 32.7% to 64.5% with a p value <0.01.

A similar frequency of PAHs was reported in another study carried out in a regional hospital in northern Senegal (15%) with a predominance of the elderly.

CONCLUSION: PAHs are a heavy burden at Grand Yoff General Hospital. Strengthening primary health care through promotion and prevention is an alternative, especially for poor populations.