Admissions to a rural hospital in the West Nile District of Uganda over a 27 year period.

An analysis is presented of data on all 30 129 inpatient admissions to a mission hospital in the West Nile District of Uganda in the 27 year period from July 1951 to August 1978. For most of this period the hospital was staffed by the same two doctors. For each patient admitted, a record was made of their age (adult or child), sex, place of residence, duration of stay in hospital, diagnosis and vital status at discharge. The annual number of admissions increased steadily from around 300 in 1952 to over 1600 in 1966 and subsequently declined to about 900 in 1977. Sixty-five per cent of admissions were medical, 12% surgical, 11% obstetric and 9% gynaecological. Thirty per cent of admissions were children (aged 0-9 years). Forty-five per cent of admissions were from those resident in the same county as the hospital and another 20% were from an immediately adjacent county. Infective and parasitic conditions (including respiratory diseases) accounted for over 60% of admissions among children and over 38% of admissions among adults (excluding obstetric patients). The six most common causes of admission were: uncomplicated delivery (2308 admissions), pneumonia (2020), hookworm (1999), malaria (1806), schistosomiasis (1742) and diarrhoea (1041). In total 1960 deaths were recorded (6.5% of all admissions). High case fatality rates were observed for tetanus (61%), immaturity (54%), meningitis (38%), kwashiorkor (21%), other malnutrition (19%) and anaemia (19%). A striking increase in the number of admissions for measles was observed in the period 1976 to 1978. Admission rates for schistosomiasis (S. mansoni) appeared to be highest from counties adjacent to the Nile and 104 deaths were recorded among the 1742 patients with this as the primary diagnosis. Admissions for diabetes, as a percentage of all admissions increased from 0.2% in 1951-54 to 1.5% at the end of the study period. Marked seasonal variations in admission patterns were found for diarrhoea, measles, meningitis and respiratory infections, the last two, but not diarrhoea, being most common in the wettest months. Admissions for malaria showed no strong seasonal associations. Despite the limitations of hospital-based data, it is argued that the data analysed provide a reasonable indication of the important causes of severe morbidity and mortality in the district. Furthermore, some of the changes in admission patterns over time are likely to represent true changes in disease rates rather than artefacts of diagnosis or referral. The analyses presented indicate the value of simple record systems, carefully maintained.