Acute Lower Respiratory Tract Infection in Children Under Five Years of Age: Anemia as a Risk Factor
Author(s): Gajanan Venkatrao Surewad*, Bhaskar Reddy Dodda, Radha Parisa and Sahithi Chandarlapati
Abstract
Background: There are many risk factors in children that have been suggested to enhance the likelihood of developing acute lower respiratory infections, some of which are certain, some of which are likely, and only a few of which are conceivable. Gaining control of the risk variables will have a positive impact on the healthy development and growth of children because lower respiratory tract infections are the main reason for death and morbidity in children. Aim: Our study's goal was to determine the relationship between low Hb levels in children suffering from LRTI Methods and Materials: 180 cases in each group (study group and control group) were the intended sample size for the current study, however we used 220 cases in each group for convenience and greater accuracy. In this study, a haemoglobin level of less than 11 gm% was deemed poor. Results: The mean haemoglobin level for patients and controls was 9.25 g% and 10.44 g%, respectively In this study 143 children in study group were anemic contributing 64.6 % of total study population. While 77 children were non anemic in study group contributing 35.4% of study population. On the other hand 64 children in control group were anemic contributing 28.4 % of total control population. While 156 children were non anemic in control group contributing 71.6 % of control population. The variation was relevant statistically. Conclusion: Acute lower respiratory tract infection has a high risk of anaemia. Acute lower respiratory tract infections must be prevented and diagnosed early in order to be less common. This relevance needs to be confirmed by additional research, and other comorbidities such low birth weight, bottle-feeding refusal, nutritional status, insufficient immunization, and exposure to ambient and home smoking should also be taken into account.