Clinical characteristics of Plasmodium falciparum infection among symptomatic patients presenting to a major urban military hospital in Cameroon

Table 1 Participant characteristics by PCR-determined malaria status

	All n = 503	P. falciparum* positive n = 187	P. falciparum negative n = 316	p**
Age	n = 498 32 ± 20 years	n = 186 30 ± 20 years	n = 312 34 ± 20 years	.038
Female***	n = 503 257 (51.1)	n = 187 84 (44.9)	n = 316 173 (54.7)	.033
Anti-malarial	n = 501 87 (17.4)	n = 186 40 (21.5)	n = 315 47 (14.9)	.060
Antipyretic	n = 501 202 (40.3)	n = 186 86 (46.2)	n = 315 116 (36.8)	.038
Traditional remedy	n = 495 50 (10.1)	n = 185 25 (13.5)	n = 310 25 (8.1)	.052
Travel	n = 500 143 (28.6)	n = 185 55 (29.7)	n = 315 88 (27.9)	.668
Fever by history	n = 502 488 (97.2)	n = 186 183 (97.8)	n = 316 306 (96.8)	.505
Fever on presentation	n = 488 322 (66.0)	n = 179 121 (67.6)	n = 309 201 (65.0)	.567
Temperature on presentation	n = 488 37.8 ± 1.0	n = 179 38.1 ± 1.1	n = 309 37.7 ± 0.9	< .001

Values reported as mean ± SD for age and number (valid percent) for other variables
Anti-malarial, antipyretic, and traditional remedy refers to participant reported medication use for the current illness episode
Travel refers to participant reported travel within the previous 30 days
Fever by history refers to participant-reported fever within the preceding 72 h. Note that only 2.8% of participants did not have history of fever, and the percentage of participants with history of fever was equivalent between the two groups
Fever on presentation was defined as temperature ≥ 37.5 °C on measurement by either emergency department staff or oral measurement by study personnel
*Includes 9 cases of P. falciparum/P. malariae and 5 cases of P. falciparum/P. ovale mixed infections
**Means of continuous variables compared using independent samples t-test and categorical variables compared using Pearson Chi square. Significant p-values < 0.05 bolded
***Includes 7 pregnant women

ISSN: 1475-2875