BMC Public Health. 2024 Dec 2;24(1):3351. doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-20883-1.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Pneumonia is a major cause responsible for mortality and morbidity among children around the world. The present study aimed to determine the age distribution, and contributing risk factors for mortality among children who died from pneumonia.
METHOD: This study was a cross-sectional study conducted at Teaching Hospital Peradeniya and Sirimavo Bandaranaike Specialized Children’s Hospital (SBSCH) which is one of the two specialised children’s hospitals in the country. Demographic details, clinical details, laboratory and radiological findings of the children who died due to pneumonia from 2017 to 2022 were collected from record rooms of the two hospitals. The targeted study cohort consists of children between 0 and 14 years of age who died with an established diagnosis of pneumonia. Data was analysed using SPSS version 24. Percentages were calculated to determine the demographic details. The association between different risk factors with childhood pneumonia deaths was calculated.
RESULTS: Fifty-six (56) children in the age category of 0-14 years who died due to an established diagnosis of pneumonia from 2017 to 2022 were included in this study. Fourteen (25%) of them died in the acute medical ward and the remainder in the ICU. From the total study cohort, 51.8% (29) were males and 48.2% (27) were females. The highest number of children (39.3%) was in the age category of 3-12 months. Forty-two children, 75% of the study cohort were children younger than 1 year. Among 56 total, 41 children (73.2%) were identified as underweight for age according to the WHO weight for age charts and 14 (25%) children had not completed the immunisation to the age according to the National Programme of Immunisation (NPI) of Sri Lanka. In the present study cohort, 51.8% (29) of children were diagnosed with CHD and 28.6% (16) of the study cohort had a past medical history of LRTI. Number of patients with underlying respiratory diseases and cerebral palsy were 6 (10.7%) and 5 (8.9%) respectively. There was a significant correlation between the death of children due to pneumonia and the younger age (p = 0.004), duration of the hospital stay (P = 0.011), cerebral palsy (p = 0.004) and history of LRTI (p = 0.001).
CONCLUSION: Younger age of less than one year, cerebral palsy and a history of lower respiratory tract infections were significantly associated with children dying due to pneumonia. Nearly half of the children who died from pneumonia had a congenital heart disease although it is not statistically significant. A substantial number of deaths occurring in general wards needs further evaluation.
PMID:39623419 | DOI:10.1186/s12889-024-20883-1
