A descriptive cross-sectional study on prevalence of respiratory diseases among patients visiting Jiri District Hospital, Nepal.

Background: This study aims to analyze the distribution of respiratory diseases like chronic respiratory diseases (asthma and COPD), Upper respiratory tract infection (URTI), and lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) in terms of time, place, and person among patients visiting Jiri District Hospital in Nepal. Methods: A hospital-based retrospective descriptive cross sectional study was carried out by analyzing trends using secondary data for the fiscal years 2016/17 to 2018/19 in the Jiri District Hospital patients. Study participants were all the patient’s visiting the hospital who had respiratory health-related problems. Results: A total of 4202 patients having respiratory health related problems visited the hospital over a three years. The majority of the patients (54.4%) who visited the hospital having respiratory health problems were female and the average age was 25.9 years with a range of one month to 92 years old. The burden of URTIs (50.2%) was higher among children less than ten years old. COPD was higher among females (60%) than males, and 75.9% among those aged 60 years and above. The incidence of respiratory diseases increased by two folds in the fiscal year 2018/19 with compared to the past two years, with the highest load during the winter months. The cases were most concentrated in places with easiest access to the hospital. Conclusion: Significant number of cases were reported from easy access to health facility, local government could developed health packages and diagnosed the patients of farther area and cure in time.