A ONE YEAR RETROSPECTIVE STUDY ON OUTCOME AND FACTORS AFFECTING THE OUTCOMES OF SEVERE PNEUMONIA IN CHILDREN AT WOLKITE UNIVERSITY SPECIALIZED TEACHING HOSPITAL, AUGUST 2023

Abstract

Background: Pneumonia is the common cause of morbidity and mortality of children. Globally, more than 2 million children die from pneumonia each year, accounting 20% of under 5 mortality Objective: To assess the treatment outcome and the factors affecting the treatment outcome among children with severe pneumonia admitted to pediatric critical ward WUSTH Method: Institutional based cross-sectional retrospective study through card review was conducted from August 1,2022-August 30,2023. Data was collected by a questionnaire based review of medical records. The collected data was entered and edited into Epi-data manager version 4.4.1.0, and the analysis was performed by SPSS-25. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with the treatment outcome and P-value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant‖. Result: A total of 340 patients was included and majority of the patients show improvement 324 (95.2%), This finding showed that children who have malnutrition (AOR=2.4, 95% CI: 1.67–4.37, p = 0.000), duration of hospital stay (AOR=1.46, 95% CI: 3.2–11.13 P=0.007) and duration of illness prior to hospital admission (AOR=1.17, 95% CI: 1.8–6 p=0.043) were statistically significant with the treatment outcome. Conclusion and recommendations: -This study showed that among patients admitted with severe pneumonia, most of the patients show improvement. Being malnourished, prolonged hospital stays and prolonged duration of illness prior to hospital stay were identified as the factors affecting the treatment outcome. Even though the study revealed good treatment outcome among the pediatric patients, particular consideration should be given to children in need of other interventions.