Pattern and outcomes of paediatric medical admissions at the Living Word Mission Hospital, Aba, South East Nigeria

Abstract

IntroductionThere is a decline in child mortality rate globally, courtesy of the erstwhile Millennium Development Goals. However, under-five mortality is still high in the African sub-regions. The need to review the morbidity and mortality pattern among children admitted into private health settings, where 60% of the medical conditions of the masses are being attended to in the sub-regions, cannot be overemphasized. This study aimed at documenting the morbidity pattern and outcomes of admissions among children admitted into the Living Word Mission Hospital (LWMH), Aba, Nigeria.MethodsThis was a retrospective descriptive study over a 3 year period. The study population comprised of all children aged 1 month to 15 years that were admitted into the pediatric wards of the Living Word Mission Hospital, Aba, Nigeria. The age, gender, diagnoses and disease outcome of these patients, were all retrieved from the pediatric ward registers and hospital medical records. The data were analyzed using SPSS, version 20.0.ResultsThere were 2278 pediatric medical cases admitted over the study period. Males were 1364 and females were 914, giving a male: female ratio of 1.5:1. More than 90% of these patients were aged < less than 5 years. Severe malaria (31.1%), septicaemia (16.6%), bronchopneumonia (15.4%), uncomplicated malaria (11.9%), acute watery diarrhea (10.5%) and meningitis (3.7%) were the leading causes of admission. Mortality rate was 5.7%, with 87.5% of these deaths occurring in under-fives. Septicaemia (34.6%) and Severe malaria (23.2%) were the leading causes of death.ConclusionThere is a high rate of paediatric admissions at Living Word Hospital, Aba. The under-five population remains a vulnerable group to both childhood morbidity and mortality. Septicaemia, malaria, bronchopnuemonia and acute watery diarrhoea were the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. Childhood mortality at LWMH is lower than observed in most government hospitals in Nigeria.

Patterns, Outcomes and Predictors of Pediatric Medical Admissions at Gadarif Hospital in Eastern Sudan

“…In the current study, visceral leishmaniasis, malnutrition, severe malaria and sickle cell disease were the most common causes of admission. Previous studies have shown that severe anemia, sickle cell disease, malaria and visceral leishmaniasis were the main causes of pediatric morbidity and mortality in eastern Sudan ( 17 , 18 ) and in other African countries, e.g., Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda ( 3 , 19 , 20 ).…”

“…A sample size of 740 medical files of children was calculated based on the reported rate of death (5.6%) in a previous study in Nigeria of children admitted to hospital ( 3 ). We assumed that 55 vs. 35% and 85 vs. 65% were the rates of the females and under-fives in children who died and children who survived, respectively.…”

“…Child morbidity and hospital admission are considered financial burdens to governments, health systems, and parents ( 2 ). In Africa, infections and communicable diseases are the leading causes of childhood morbidity and mortality ( 3 ). Despite the shift in the causes of mortality toward non-communicable diseases, communicable diseases remain the major causes of mortality and morbidity in middle- and low-income countries ( 4 ).…”

Multi-drug resistance and high mortality associated with community-acquired bloodstream infections in children in conflict-affected northwest Nigeria

“…This might be from the high proportion of patients receiving the correct empirical antibiotic treatment upon admission. The mortality in pediatric patients with suspected bloodstream infections in Anka is higher than the average pediatric mortality reported from secondary hospitals in Nigeria in Aba (5.7%) 18 and Asaba (5.8%) 19 . It is also higher than the overall average monthly pediatric hospital mortality from AGH (8.3%, MSF unpublished data).…”

Paediatric Mortality: Aetiologies and Predictors among Children Aged 1 Month to 15 Years in a Tertiary Hospital in Douala, Cameroon

“…This finding is surprising and could be explained by the fact that several conditions including infections can elicit increased CRP levels [21]. To be noted, infections as malaria are a common cause of hyperthermia [22] [23] [24].…”