Pattern and Trends of Respiratory Disease: A Six Year Review of Ambulatory Services in a Tertiary Hospital in Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Background: Respiratory diseases are significant contributors to global disease morbidity and mortality especially in low and middle-income countries like Nigeria. It is imperative to evaluate the changing and current trends of respiratory disease especially with prevalent air pollution and exposure to biomass fuel; as disease trend evaluation promotes the planning of adequate service delivery. The objective of this study was to evaluate the pattern of respiratory disease in the ambulatory service of a tertiary hospital in Port Harcourt south-south of Nigeria over 6 years. Methods: This was a retrospective descriptive study of medical outpatient attendees diagnosed with respiratory diseases at the specialty respiratory clinic over 6 years, 1st January 2013 to 31st December 2018. Results: The leading respiratory conditions were Asthma (32.2%), Tuberculosis (31.2%), COPD (16.8%), Pneumonia/Lung infection (8.7%) and Lung malignancies (2.9%), Interstitial Lung disease (2.7%), Pleural diseases & others (2.2%), Upper Respiratory Tract disease (1.7%), Sarcoidosis (1.0%) and OSA/Sleep disorders (0.3%). Non-communicable respiratory disease accounted for 58.4 % of the respiratory diseases seen in this study. Conclusion: The pattern of respiratory diseases reported in this study corresponds with the global pattern of leading respiratory diseases. The findings of this study call for more attention to be paid to the prevention and management of the prevalent respiratory disease conditions to achieve a reduction in the morbidity and mortality associated with these conditions.