Determinants of pneumonia prevalence among children under five years: case study of Kampala District

Abstract

The purpose of the study aimed at examining the determinants of pneumonia prevalence among children under five years in Kampala region. The researcher used UDHS secondary data (UBOS 2016). Data for 1158 children under under-five years from the Kampala region were extracted from UDHS secondary data using the keep command in STATA. Data analysis was done using the chi-square test and multinomial logistic regression. Most of the mothers had attained a primary level of education (58.4%) followed by twenty-eight percent of mothers who had attained the secondary level of education and over ninety nine percent of the mothers in the Kampala region were nonsmokers. Over 80% of the respondents were from urban parts of Kampala. There were more boys in Kampala region than the girls. Forty one percent of the children had chest problems and over sixty one percent of the children had no short and rapid breaths. 92.75% of the children had ever received BCG vaccine. Factors associated with short and rapid breaths were place of residence (Chi-value=10.0484, p value=0.005) and sex of the child (Chi-value=10.0709, p-value=0.007). Factors that were not associated with pneumonia risk were age of child, size of child at birth and whether child received BCG vaccine. As compared to boys in Kampala, girls had 0.33 less odds of getting pneumonia. (OR= -0.33, p value=0.012). As compared to children in rural parts of Kampala region, children in urban parts of Kampala had 0.45 less odds of getting pneumonia (OR= -0.45, p-value=0.006). Children in urban centres and female children had a lower risk of pneumonia. The study concluded that factors associated with risk of pneumonia included place of residence and sex of child and the prevalence of pneumonia in Kampala region was 2.43%. The study recommended that general hygiene should be observed at all places of residence. Further research should be carried out to find out the effect of delayed care of pneumonia among children.