Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 patients under telemonitoring in primary care

Características clínicas y epidemiológicas de pacientes COVID-19 en telemonitoreo en el primer nivel de atención Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 patients under telemonitoring in primary care

Objective: To describe the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 patients undergoing telemonitoring in primary care. Materials and methods: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional, retrospective study using a non-probabilistic convenience sample of 332 records of patients suspected of having SARS-CoV-2 from a
primary care center. Data were collected from the SISCOVID-19 platform, with prior permission from the institution, and personally identifiable information was protected with codes. Results: Of the study population, 58.73% were female and
41.27% were male, with a mean age of 39 years; 31.02% worked in service-sector jobs, 22.89% were homemakers, and 8.73% were healthcare workers. Hypertension (5.72%), obesity (3.31%), and cardiovascular disease (2.71%) were the most common comorbidities most common. 100.00% were diagnosed using a rapid test, and 86.61% reported having household contacts. Symptoms at the start of telemonitoring included: cough (56.02%) and sore throat (50.00%); 100% of cases were followed up by phone, with
25.00% for more than 16 days; symptoms that persisted for an average of 6 days were: headache (6.39%) and sore throat (5.92%); and the most persistent was headache (6.385 ± 4.555 days). Most patients presented with mild symptoms (67.77%). Conclusions:
Telemonitoring offers great potential for patient follow-up in epidemic settings because it allows for early case detection. Consequently, it reduces hospitalizations, lowers the risk of infection for healthcare personnel and families, decreases the operational costs of follow-up, improves the
referral of complicated cases, and enables education on preventive measures and home treatment.