Comparison of severity of COVID-19 in groups of an educational community in Ecuador

Authors

  • Blanca Cristina Estrella López
  • Anahí Bonilla Rodríguez
  • Alex Gabriel Lara Jacome

Keywords:

university community, COVID-19, Kruskal-Wallis test, epidemiology, public health

Abstract

Introduction: COVID-19 in a global health crisis with a significant impact in terms of disease and mortality worldwide.

Objective: The objective of the study was to compare the severity of COVID-19 in different groups of the educational community in Ecuador.

Methods: This was an epidemiological, relational, retrospective, observational, cross-sectional and analytical study. The study population consisted of 150 patients with COVID-19 of the educational community, broken down into the categories of students, teachers and administrative staff. The alternative hypothesis (H1) indicated that the severity of COVID-19 was different according to the group of the university community to which the patient belonged. A Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA analysis was performed with the support of SPSS software.

Results: Students had the highest proportion of mild cases (86.0 %), and administrative staff had the highest proportion of severe cases (8.0 %). The Kruskal-Wallis H value was 33.319, with 2 degrees of freedom, and the asymptotic significance was less than 0.001. This indicated that the Kruskal-Wallis test detected significant differences in COVID-19 severity between the community groups, fulfilling the investigator's hypothesis.

Conclusions: COVID-19 severity varied significantly as a function of specific community group affiliation, which highlighted the importance of considering contextual factors when addressing COVID-19 in university communities.

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Published

2023-11-18

How to Cite

1.
Estrella López BC, Bonilla Rodríguez A, Lara Jacome AG. Comparison of severity of COVID-19 in groups of an educational community in Ecuador. Rev Cubana Inv Bioméd [Internet]. 2023 Nov. 18 [cited 2025 Aug. 1];42(2). Available from: https://revibiomedica.sld.cu/index.php/ibi/article/view/3086