Prevalence of pneumonia and risk factors of pneumonia mortality among children under five years (original) (raw)

African Journal of Current Medical Research

Background Pneumonia remains the foremost cause of death in children under 5 years of age especially in sub-Saharan Africa killing nearly 1 million annually. Purpose Identify pneumonia prevalence, mortality rate and associated factors among children under five admitted to Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Ghana. Methods Using a cross-sectional study method, a purposive sampling of 157 children under 5 admitted to the KATH for pneumonia from June to August 2016 was selected. A structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data from their caregivers and secondary data from the patient record using a structured data extraction form. Continuous and categorical variables were described and chi-square test employed to determine the associated factors of pneumonia mortality. Multivariate Poisson regression model was used to test for the strength of the association to unearth the risk factors of pneumonia mortality. The incidence relative risk (IRR) at 95% confidence inter (CI) was presented. Results The study found a prevalence of pneumonia of 18.40% with a mortality rate of 12.74%. Pneumonia mortality was found to be associated with maternal education (p<0.001), occupation (p=0.010), income (p=0.020), pneumonia severity (p<0.001) and number of rooms occupied by a household (p=0.010). In multivariate Poisson regression model, maternal education increased the incidence rate of pneumonia mortality (IRR=8.0, 95% CI=3.06-21.13, p<0.001) and occupation (IRR=2.8, 95% CI 0.70-11.45, p=0.143). However, pneumonia severity (IRR=3.6, 95% CI=1.50-8.48, p=0.004), income (IRR=0.05, 95% CI=0.01-0.22, p<0.001), and number of rooms occupied by a household (IRR=0.2, 95% CI=0.07-0.51, p=0.001) all showed reduced incidence rate of pneumonia mortality. Conclusion Pneumonia places a high burden on the health of children under five years admitted to KATH. Health workers need to sensitize caregivers on the signs and symptoms of pneumonia to aid early detection and reporting which could reduce mortality.