Background
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a global health concern as it is the third leading cause of mortality worldwide with a high economic and social burden. It is characterized by chronic inflammation in the respiratory tract that causes airflow limitation and persistent respiratory symptoms that may be worsening and lead to hospitalization. COPD becomes a more serious health problem in Syria where its healthcare system has suffered a lot because of the ongoing crisis and COPD is highly prevalent. There is no available data about hospitalization related to COPD in Syria. Thus, we aimed in this study to estimate COPD-related hospitalization in a main hospital in Damascus as a step to shed light on this problem which may help in tackling it and reducing COPD in this country.
Methods
A retrospective study was conducted and included 199 patients from Al-Assad University Hospital. These patients are hospitalized because of COPD between January 2017 and January 2020.
Results
Our results showed many admissions because of COPD in Al-Assad University Hospital. Females had longer hospital stay (7.2 ±5.1 days) compared with males (6.4 ± 4.4 days) but there is no statistically significant (p = 0.450). In addition, there is a correlation between age and length of hospital stay in males (p = 0.0004).
Conclusion
COPD has a high rate of hospitalization in Syria, and more studies and actions are required to tackle this health challenge to reduce its burden.