Causes and predictors of mortality among Ghanaians hospitalised with endocrine disorders

BACKGROUND: Endocrine disorders have been noted to be on the increase in the developing world, but little is known about their outcomes on the African continent. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective longitudinal study to evaluate the demographic characteristics and determinants of endocrine-related mortality among adult patients over 9 y in a leading tertiary hospital in Ghana. We determined the predictors of inpatient mortality using Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox proportional hazard regression analysis. RESULTS: Overall, 6265 patients (9.7% of all medical admissions) were admitted with various endocrine disorders during the period. The most common endocrine cause of hospitalisation was diabetes mellitus (86.0%), followed in order of decreasing frequency by thyroid disorders (7.7%) and miscellaneous disorders (1.4%). The overall crude mortality rate of endocrine admissions was 16.7%. Death was predicted by increasing age with an adjusted hazard ratio of 1.25 (95% confidence interval 1.15 to 1.65) for every 10-y increase in age. CONCLUSIONS: Almost one in six adults admitted with an endocrine disorder to a tertiary care centre in Ghana died in hospital, and many of the deaths were due to non-communicable disease complications. Enhanced public health disease prevention strategies and endocrine inpatient care processes are warranted.