Analysis of admissions to the pediatric emergency ward of Tikur Anbessa Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: The trend of diseases varies across time depending on the change in human health behavior and lifestyle, environmental factors and epidemiology of diseases. Health facility-based studies can give us proxy informationon the burden of diseases in the community. Knowing the important causes of childhood morbidity and mortalityenables planners to design proper priority setting and intervention planning. Objective: To analyze the characteristics of patients admitted under pediatric emergency ward of Tikur AnbessaHospital and identify important causes of admissions and deaths. Methodology: A cross-sectional retrospective analysis of admissions to the pediatric emergency ward of TikurAnbessa hospital was made for a period of one year from September 2002 to August 2003. Result: A total of 2,522 patients were admitted in one year, among whom 1,459 (57.9%) were males and 1,063(42.1%) were females with a male to female ratio of 1.4. The mean age of the study subjects was 2.8 years for malesand 2.9 years for females. For both sexes the maximum age was 13 years and 76.5% of patients were 5 years of age orless. Out of 2,522 admissions, 360 (14.3%) died in the emergency ward. Severe pneumonia accounted for 38.3% of thetotal admissions and 41.9% of the deaths. Conclusion: Interventions targeting prevention of pneumonia, sepsis and meningitis for children will have paramountimportance in reducing childhood illnesses and deaths in the country. Since most of the causes of death in the wardare treatable, there is a room to reduce mortality by improving early case detection and management. [Ethiop.J.HealthDev. 2007;21(1):48-52]