Impact of demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics on dengue-related hospital stay in Bauru, Brazil

BACKGROUND OBJECTIVES: Dengue represents a high economic and health burden, particularly in low, and middle-income countries, including Brazil. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics on dengue-related hospital stay in Bauru, Brazil. METHODS: This is a retrospective, cross-sectional, observational study that evaluated the impact of demographic characteristics (age, gender, and self-reported ethnicity), chronic diseases (diabetes mellitus, systemic arterial hypertension, chronic kidney disease, dyslipidemia, cancer, cardiomyopathy, and heart failure), clinical signs (hematemesis, hepatomegaly, and edema), and symptoms (anemia), alone or in combination, to the length of hospitalization. All patients admitted for dengue in a public tertiary-level referral hospital in Bauru, São Paulo, Brazil, 2019, were included. A survival analysis was performed for statistical purposes. RESULTS: Overall, 234 patients were evaluated, whose mean age was 35.35±1.80 years with an average length of hospitalization of 6.38±0.44 days. The final model presented higher ages, presence of chronic diseases and clinical alterations as significant variables in determining the length of hospitalization. INTERPRETATION CONCLUSION: Patients with dengue presented long hospitalization lengths at discharge, mainly those with higher ages, chronic diseases (diabetes mellitus, systemic arterial hypertension, chronic kidney disease, heart failure) and clinical signs (edema) and symptoms (anemia) alone or in combination. Gender, self-reported ethnicity, cancer, cardiomyopathy, dyslipidemia, hematemesis, and hepatomegaly had no significant impact on the length of hospitalization. Prevention of the disease through continuous education and immunization of the general population, mainly those belonging to high-risk groups, is urgently needed.