Sakthivel Shanmugam1 , Senthil Kumar Kandasamy2
BACKGROUND Pneumonia remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality in both industrialized and developing countries. It is one of the leading causes of underfive child death. This study was conducted to assess the clinical profile and to identify the risk factors of pneumonia in children between 2 months and 5 years of age. METHODS This is a prospective study conducted among 90 children in the age group of 2 months to 5 years, with clinical features of fast breathing and chest retractions as per ARI control programme who got admitted in paediatric wards of Karuna Medical College and Hospital from January 2018 to September 2019. RESULTS 2 - 12 months old children were most commonly admitted in the hospital (46.6 %). Bronchopneumonia (75.5 %) was the common diagnosis made at admission clinically. According to ARI control programme, 26.6 % had pneumonia, 62.2 % had severe pneumonia and 11.1 % had very severe pneumonia. Among the risk factors, 86.6 % had malnutrition, 58.8 % had overcrowding. Lower socioeconomic status was found in 92.2 % of patients. CONCLUSIONS Childhood pneumonia is one of the important causes of morbidity and mortality. Protein energy malnutrition, overcrowding and low socioeconomic status were found to be the risk factors for pneumonia.
