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
