COVID-19 in the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) population. Prevalent symptoms

  1. Arturo Juárez-Flores
  2. Iván J. Ascencio-Montiel
  3. Juan Pablo Gutiérrez
  4. Stefano M. Bertozzi
  5. Víctor H. Borja-Aburto
  6. Gustavo Olaiz

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Abstract

Background

The disease caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, which appeared in early 2020 in Mexico, was the second leading cause of mortality in the country that year and has generated an increasing demand for medical care. By January 2022, 4.13 million cases and 300 thousand direct deaths have been documented.

Objective

To describe the main symptoms of people with a positive test for SARS-CoV-2 treated at the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) by sex, age group, and IMSS delegation.

Methods

4.5 million epidemiological reports were registered in the IMSS epidemiological surveillance system between February 2020 and November 2021. They were analyzed, reporting for those with either a positive PCR or rapid test, the prevalence of symptoms by sex, groups of age, and IMSS delegation.

Results

Among the population treated at the IMSS, six symptoms are observed as the most prevalent in general, as well as by sex, age groups, and state of residence: cefalea, fever, cough, myalgia, odynophagia, and arthralgias.

Conclusions

A better understanding of the clinical picture with which confirmed cases of COVID-19 present contributes to reporting timely diagnoses, considering the particularities by sex, age, and place of residence.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2022.04.12.22273734: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Ethicsnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Analysis: The data was downloaded, stored, and cleaned in SQL server 2019, and the description of these was made in STATA 16.
    STATA
    suggested: (Stata, RRID:SCR_012763)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    The strengths of this study lie in its high number of observations and national representativeness since 30.1% of the cases recognized in the national database come from this institution; however, there are limitations to these data, such as the differences in the care and registration process in each of the medical units. Subsequent evaluations will confirm the prevalent symptomatology and characterize the patient suspected of COVID-19.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2022.04.12.22273734v1 on medRxiv