A Comparative Study of Clinico-epidemiological Factors and Duration of Hospitalization in Dengue among the Pediatric, Adolescents, and Adult Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Lucknow

Background : Dengue virus infection has seen an unprecedented rise in last few decades globally and is a major growing public health problem. The research, considering the burden of the disease during epidemics and impact on hospital admissions, dedicated to the comparison of clinic-social factors and duration of hospitalization and its predictors in pediatric, adolescents, and adult age group are scarce from India. Hence, the study was undertaken with the objectives to find out the factors affecting each age group as well as influencing the duration of hospitalization in dengue patients. Materials and Methods : Cross-Sectional Retrospective Observational Study conducted at a tertiary care hospital. Study Technique : Data were retrieved from case sheets at Medical Record Department of 504 lab confirmed dengue patients admitted in the hospital. Results show the majority of patients admitted adults followed by adolescents and then pediatric age group. Majority across all age groups had duration of hospitalization of 4–6 days. Apart from that majority of socio-clinical factors were same across all the age groups. Discussion : The study found that most of patients were adult pointing out to the lower herd immunity and seasonal transmission of dengue in the local area. All the other clinic-epidemiological factors were common in all age groups. Conclusion : The study concludes that the dengue affects adult age group in comparison to adolescents and pediatric age group and more male’s thereby indicating external exposure to the vector. The association of different age group with clinico-epidemiological factors such as platelet count, and hemoglobin level requires further research. Key words : Case fatality, dengue, duration of hospitalization, platelet count