Hospitalisation and critical care for pneumonia among children aged 5-9 years in Bangladesh: a 10-year retrospective analysis.

BACKGROUND

Most medical research on pneumonia in children focuses on those <5 years, leaving a gap in understanding pneumonia in children aged 5-9. We aimed to identify the characteristics of children from this age group who had pneumonia and required hospital care, including critical care service.

METHODS

In this retrospective chart analysis, we examined clinical, demographic, and laboratory characteristics of children aged 5-9 years with clinical and radiologic pneumonia admitted to Dhaka Hospital, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, from 2011 to 2020. We categorised the children into two groups: those who required critical care (admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU)) and those who did not. We compared the two groups to identify factors independently associated with the need for critical care using a log binomial regression model.

RESULTS

Among a total of 154 children who fulfilled the enrolment criteria, 34 were admitted to the ICU requiring critical care, and 120 children were treated in the inpatient ward, as they did not require any critical care. The median age of the children requiring critical care was 69 (interquartile range (IQR) = 60-81) months, compared to 72 (IQR = 62-84) months for those who didn`t require critical care (P = 0.259). Using a log binomial regression model we found hypoxemia (odds ratio (OR) = 10.1; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.42-71.92, P = 0.021), convulsion (OR = 281.37; 95% CI = 12.99-6091.72, P < 0.001], sepsis (OR = 27.69; 95% CI = 3.33-230.39, P = 0.002), hypokalaemia (OR = 10.37; 95% CI = 1.40-76.96, P = 0.022) were the independently associated with critical care service among children aged five to nine with pneumonia.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that early recognition and prompt treatment of hypoxemia, convulsions, sepsis, and hypokalaemia may significantly reduce the need for critical care and possibly avert fatal consequences in children with pneumonia, aged 5-9, especially in resource-limited settings.