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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Ibnosina Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences 2020; 12(03): 200-207
DOI: 10.4103/ijmbs.ijmbs_77_20
Original Article

Risk factors of acute respiratory infections in children in Tripoli, Libya

Samira Etrhuni
1   Department of Pediatrics, Tripoli University Hospital and Tripoli University, Tripoli
,
Rajeeh Omar
2   Elhani Polyclinic, Tripoli
,
Ibtisam Hadid
1   Department of Pediatrics, Tripoli University Hospital and Tripoli University, Tripoli
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Introduction: Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) are the most frequent infections of childhood. They continue to be the most common leading cause of acute illnesses and account for many hospital admissions worldwide. Objectives: We determined the ARIs among children admitted to the Pediatric Department at Tripoli University Hospital over a period of 3 months. Patients and Methods: In this cross-sectional study on risk factors of ARIs among children <5 years old, diagnosis was based on clinical features according to WHO guideline criteria. A pro forma was used to collect information from the child's mother, including sociodemographic factors, clinical profile, perinatal history, family history of atopy or other associated medical problems, nutritional factors, environmental factors, and type of respiratory tract infection. Results: A total of 200 children with different respiratory illnesses admitted to the Pediatric Department were included. In this study, severe pneumonia was the most common illness; the age of the admitted cases ranged from 21 days to 4.5 years; 56.5% were boys and urban residents account for 76% from the total. Nearly 53% of the cases were from families with low income, and 3.5% of the participated children in this study had missed doses of the immunization schedule. In 88% of the cases, cough was the main presenting symptom followed by shortness of breath in 83.5%. Almost 58.5% of the children had a positive family history of atopy, and only 8% of cases were exclusively breastfed for their first 6 months of age. Conclusions: Lower respiratory infections are more prevalent among children under the age of 5. Younger age, male gender, urban residence, positive family history of atopy, lack of breastfeeding, and indoor air smoke were the common risk factors for ARIs.

Key-words:

Acute respiratory infections - children - Libya - lower respiratory infections - Tripoli - upper respiratory infections

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.




Publication History

Received: 06 July 2020

Accepted: 22 August 2020

Article published online:
14 July 2022

© 2020. The Libyan Authority of Scientific Research and Technologyand the Libyan Biotechnology Research Center. All rights reserved. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License,permitting copying and reproductionso long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, oradapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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