Symptomatology and Disease Conditions of Patients Visiting the Largest Tertiary Care Hospital in Punjab, Pakistan: A One-Day Point Prevalence Study

摘要

Background: Pakistan is a middle income, developing country with an immense disease burden. A?sensitive perspective of what afflicts the general population will help the policy makers, to plan befitting?services and health infrastructure, expend resources, devise medical curricula and determine researchpriorities, in line with the needs of the country. The present study aimed to find out the prevalence of?symptoms and disease conditions with which patients visit the outpatient department of the largest tertiary care hospital in Punjab, i.e. Mayo Hospital, Lahore. Subjects and Methods: Symptoms, medical conditions and demographic details of all patients visiting all Outpatient Departments of Mayo hospital Lahore on 2nd May,2016 were recorded for the entire length of the (business) day. Simple descriptive analysis of prevalence rates of different conditions was?recorded and analyzed later with the help of SPSS 16.Results: A total of 1997 patients visited the Out Patient Department on the day with Male to female ratio of 51: 49. Fever (13.2%)was the most prevalent symptom followed by headache (7.2%) body ache (6.7%) and breathlessness (6.3%). Respiratory system related symptoms made up 22.8% of the total complaints followed by Dermatology (14.8%) and then E.N.T (13.0%). The most common disease?diagnosed was Hepatitis (8.55%) followed by Sore Throat (6.51 %) , Hypertension (4.92%) , Cataract (4.39%) and Tuberculosis (4.06%) .Conclusion: The research highlights significant social and medical challenges in Pakistan in general and Lahore in particular. It highlights the disease burden of the biggest tertiary care hospital in Pakistan with far ranging implications in our quest for Universal Health Coverage.