Abstract:
Background: Being discharged from the hospital is sometimes associated with
complications which may be dangerous to the patient. Adverse events are unintended
injuries or complications which may result in death, disability and prolonged hospital
stay after discharge or related to the hospital visit. This paper aims at giving an insight
into the relationship between patient demographic factors and the incidence, types and
severity of adverse events after hospitalization in a secondary hospital in Northern
Ghana. Method: A prospective cohort study into the relationship between adverse
events and patient demographic factors. This was carried out with patients admitted
and discharged from Wa Hospital. A total of 206 patients were recruited from the
medical, surgical and emergency wards of the hospital. Findings: Adverse events were
found to increase with age. The adverse events at age of less than 20 years was 2.4%,
between 31 to 40 was 3.3% , 41 to 50 was 3.8%, 51 to 60 was 7.2% and 61 and above
was 7.2%. However, 21 to 30 years age group had 9.2% of adverse events. There were
no differences in occurrence of adverse events among sexes and other demographic
characteristics of the patient with exception of age groups (p<0.050) which had
influence on the type of adverse events. The level of literacy and education did not
also influence the occurrences of adverse events. Conclusion: Demographic
characteristics of patients might not contribute to the development of adverse events
after they are discharged from the hospital. However, the age of patients may influence
adverse events development probably because of their weaknesses in old age.
Improvement in patients social lives will help to reduce the occurrence of adverse
events after patients had been discharged from the hospital
