Abstract

The epidemiological, clinical and therapeutic outcomes of COVID-19 vary across countries from March 16th to July 30, 2020, 1805 cases were registered in Benin, and among these cases, about 36 deaths occurred. The aim of this work was to study the epidemiological and clinical features associated with the survival of people with COVID-19 in the Department of Littoral in Republic of Benin, from March to July 2020. This was an analytical cross-sectional study that involved 920 cases of COVID-19. The Kaplan Meier method was used to estimate the survival probability and the cumulative death risk in COVID-19 cases. The Cox model was able to identify associated factors with death caused by COVID-19. The median age was 37 (Q1=28; Q3=48) years ranging from 3 to 84; the sex ratio was 0.85 in women’s favor. Most of affected people had a university level of educational attainment (64.02%). The survival probability of patients was 99% 95%CI: [98.4-99.5] at seven days, and 97.7% 95%CI: [96.4-98.5] at 17 days and more.  Age (RRadjusted; 95%CI: 6.29; [1.04-37.79]), educational attainment (RRadjusted; 95%CI: 0.11; [0.01-0.95]), place of treatment (RRadjusted; 95%CI: 18.70; [1.27-274.46]) and treatment received (RRadjusted; 95%CI: 238.46; [19.18-2963.77]) were significantly associated with treatment outcome. In conclusion, in the early stage of COVID-19 outreach in the Department of Littoral of Benin, a high level of education showed to be a protective factor against poor outcome of the treatment. Health education and promotion of school attendance remained key strategies to prevent disease in Benin.

Key words: COVID-19, epidemiology, survival probability, associated factors.