Abstract:
Background: Pneumonia is a worldwide leading infectious respiratory disease and it is a major public health issue and responsible for approximately 920136 childhood deaths in 2015. Low and middle-income countries (LMIC) of Africa including Rwanda and part of East Asia are more affected. Risk factors for pneumonia have important implications for planning suitable interventions and appropriate strategies to decrease the impact of the disease.
Objective: The aim of the present study was to identify the prevalence and the risk factors associated with pneumonia among under five years old children at Kibagabaga district hospital in Kigali, Rwanda.
Methodology: This study was a quantitative, descriptive cross sectional design and it used a convenience sampling technique to recruit 137 participants within a population of 220 children that were hospitalized and in the outpatient at Kibagabaga district hospital from 1st December to 30April. Interviewer administered questionnaire were used to collect the data and confidentiality were respected. The data was coded and analyzed using SPSS version 21. Descriptive and inferential; statistics were used to draw meaning of the data and answer the research questions about risk factors associated with pneumonia among under five children .
Results: For this study the total number of the participants were 137, with a response rate (RR) of 100%.The majority of the children were below 1 year of age and of male gender. The large proportion (43.8%) of the informants were their fathers. The majority (76.3%) of the family size had 2-3 children of under five years of age, with family members of 6-10.
On bivariate analysis, gestational age was significantly associated with pneumonia (COR 0.034, P =0.003),not receiving vaccine of one and half years was also associated with pneumonia with
(COR 0.084, P =0.005). Mother‘s education lower level (COR=7.079, p=0.000) and father‘s education lower level (COR=0.0053, p=0.003) were associated with pneumonia.
Conclusion: Children living in rural area are at higher risk of getting pneumonia 57.7% than children living in urban area 43.3%. Small gestational age, mother‘s education, father ‗education, having a family member who smoke and having someone who smoke inside the house were found to be risk factors associated with pneumonia(COR:1.5;P=0.000).
