DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-137204/v1
Background: Adult emergency department mortality remains high in resource-limited lower-income countries. The majority of deaths occur within the first 72 hours of admission to the emergency department which is termed as early emergency department mortality. Many of these mortality’s can be alleviated with appropriate intervention. Though the magnitude, cause, and the time interval of death after their admission to the department have a huge aspect for the clinical world, however, studies on this topic lack adequate data. Therefore, this study was aimed to assess the magnitude, cause, and factors related to early mortality in patients presented to the emergency department of Tikure Anbesa Specialized Tertiary Hospital, Ethiopia from March 2018 to 2020.
Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study design was conducted to address the study objectives. Retrospective data were collected from the patients’ records who died in the emergency department from March 2018 to 2020. Data entered using Epi data 4.2.1 and analyzed using SPSS Version 23. Using the Chi-square test, binary and multiple logistic regression analyses were carried out to measure the association of variables of interest and the outcome variable (early emergency mortality). P-value < 0.05, odds ratio with 95% CI were used to identify the significant factors.
Results: From the total identified emergency department death records, 506 (59.8) were early mortality. Triage category red AOR 0.23 95% CI 0.1-0.55, co-morbid disease HIV AIDS AOR 2.72 95% CI 1.01-7.30, residence Addis Ababa 2.78 (1.36-5.68) and Oromia 3.23 95% CI 1.58-6.54 and duration of illness 4-24 hour AOR 0.47 95% CI 0.26-0.87 were found significantly associated with early emergency department mortality.
Conclusions and recommendations: The magnitude of early mortality was significant. Residence Addis Ababa and Oromia, triage category red, co-morbid disease HIV AIDS, and duration of symptom 4-24 hours were significantly associated with early emergency department mortality. Early detection and intervention are required to minimize emergency mortality.