Morbidity Pattern among Adult Patients in the General Out-Patient Clinic of an Urban Tertiary Hospital in North Central Nigeria

Abstract

Background: The general outpatient clinic of a tertiary institution provides primary care to patients whose disease profile could give an insight into the pattern of disease in that community. In developing countries, urbanization and adoption of western lifestyle have influenced changes in disease pattern. Data generated of such changing patterns are useful in planning and administering healthcare services. Objectives: To illustrate the pattern of disease and highlight the commonest ones in the adult population of the General Out-patient Department clinic(GOPD) of Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), Plateau State, Nigeria. Methods: We carried out a cross sectional, descriptive survey on 519 systematically recruited adults presenting to the clinic. Their ailments were diagnosed by primary care physicians at clinical consultations and classified using the International Classification of Primary Care version 2 (ICPC-2). Epi info version 7 statistical software package was used to analyse data. Results: A total of 1073 diagnoses were made; 70% of the patients had multiple diagnoses. The top 5 classes of morbidities were cardiovascular: 346 patients (66.7%), endocrine/metabolic: 249 patients (48%), Digestive: 87 patients (16.8%), Musculoskeletal: 70 patients (13.5 %) and Psychological: 59 (11.4%) patients. Social problems were the least encountered; 1patient (0.19%). The commonest disease entity was hypertension: 295 patients (56.8%). Conclusion: There exists a predominance of non-communicable diseases among this group of adult patients. This finding is useful for planning and upgrading primary care training programs and services.