Attitudes towards and clinical factors associated with pneumonia among under-fives attending Kiryandongo General Hospital between January & February 2019
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Date
2019-04
Authors
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Publisher
Kampala International University, School of Health Sciences
Abstract
Pneumonia is the leading cause of mortality in children under five years. Many predisposing factors do exist and can be avoided to reduce its prevalence in our country. I conducted a study that involved a total of 220 children aged five years and below who were accompanied by their guardians attending Kiryandongo Hospital. I used questionnaires which covered aspects that enabled the determination of the prevalence of pneumonia, Clinical factors and presence of comorbidity such as HIV infection and its association with pneumonia. Out of the 220 children aged five years and below, 35(15.9%) had pneumonia. The study also found early weaning (11.3%), prematurity (48.2%) and failure to adhere to the immunization schedule (9.7%) to be some of the risk factors predisposing these children to pneumonia. There was a significant association between HIV infection (22.9%), malnutrition (12.7%), caretakers’ attitudes towards pneumonia involving knowledge of risk factors and preventive measures and prevalence of pneumonia among the under-fives. The prevalence of pneumonia in children aged five years and below attending Kiryandongo Hospital was 15.9%. Numerous factors were established as predisposing these children to pneumonia such as early weaning, less adherence to immunization schedule, prematurity, malnutrition and HIV infection. Avoidance of these factors as well as educating caretakers about pneumonia will drastically reduce its prevalence
Description
A research report submitted to the Faculty of Clinical Medicine and Dentistry in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of a degree of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery of Kampala International University
Keywords
Pneumonia among children, Kiryandongo General Hospital