Gender and age based evaluation of clinical signs and symptoms of dengue: A secondary data analysis

Abstract

Background: The global incidence of dengue, a mosquito-borne viral infection, has grown dramatically in recent decades with about half of the world’s population is now at risk. Its clinical manifestations include headache, fever, skin rashes, leukopenia and arthralgia. Local data evaluating age and gender based differences in clinical signs and symptoms of dengue are scarce at best. Objective: To compare the clinical signs and symptoms of dengue across gender and age based groups. Methods: A secondary data analysis of a randomized controlled trial on the effects of silymarin on hepatic enzymes and clinical manifestation of dengue was conducted. The clinical signs and symptoms of the dengue patients were recorded at the baseline before giving trial intervention. Chisquare test was used to make desired comparisons across gender and age based groups whereas the significance level was set at 0.05. Results: The study results showed that rash (p=0.047) and infected conjunctiva (p=0.013) were significantly associated with gender of the patients whereas nausea and vomiting (p=0.01), headache (p=0.016), retro-orbital pain (p=0.049) and infected conjunctiva (p=0.032) were significantly associated with age of the patients. Conclusion: A significant association of rash and injected conjunctiva with gender of dengue patients and of nausea and vomiting, headache, retro-orbital pain and injected conjunctiva with age of dengue patients was found. Further evaluation of study findings because of their potential implications for the symptomatic management of dengue patients is recommended.