Clinical Features and Risk Factors of Community Pneumonia in Children

Introduction: Community pneumonia is a common and potentially serious disease with significant morbidity. Purpose: To assess the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of hospitalized children with community-acquired pneumonia. Material and methods: This is a prospective study conducted at the Durres Regional Hospital during the period 2010-2015 that includes 87 children aged 0-14 years presented in the Emergency Department of the hospital and who were hospitalized with the diagnosis of acquired pneumonia in the community. Sociodemographic, epidemiological, clinical and vaccination data was collected through a file. To assess the risk factors for pneumonia, children are compared with a control group adjusted for gender, age, economic status, and place of residence. Results: The average age of children is 5.9 (? 5.3) years ranging from 6 months to 13 years. 57% of children are male and 42.5% female. The clinical form of pneumonia is mild in 33.3% of cases, moderate in 48.3% and severe in 18.4% of them. Regarding the clinical signs by age group, a significant difference is found for diarrhea (p = 0.03) and dyspnea (p = 0.02) which prevail in the age group less than2 years in respectively 53.8% and 61.5% of cases of this age group. Risk factors for pneumonia are found: maternal age 25?34 years (OR = 1.7 p = 0.03), maternal employment in the administration (OR = 1.9 p = 0.04), diarrhea in the last 2 weeks (OR = 1.6 p = 0.02 ), passive smoking in the family (OR = 2.1 p = 0.01), no. of family membersgreater than 3 (OR = 1.6 p = 0.03, Other children in the family (OR = 3.1 p = 0.02) and school attendance (OR = 1.8 p = 0.04). Conclusion: The diagnosis of pneumonia should be considered in infants and children with respiratory symptoms, particularly cough, tachypnea, withdrawal, and abnormal pulmonary examination. Diagnosis can also be made on the basis of the clinic in children with fever and evidence of an infectious process with respiratory detres.