Low Hemoglobin Level a Risk Factor for Acute Lower Respiratory Tract Infections (ALRTI) in Children

Abstract

Background: Acute lower respiratory tract infection is a major cause of death in under five years of age, and anemia is the commonest co-factor in pediatric patients seeking medical advice especially in developing countries.

Assessment of Iron Deficiency Anemia as a Risk Factor for Acute Lower Respiratory Tract Infections in Nepalese Children- A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Male preponderance was found (59.8%) with male to female ratio 1.5:1. Similar results were found in different studies, 70.7% in Malla T et al [1] , 57.3% in Hussain SQ et al [17] , 63% in Ramakrishnan K et al [20] and 64.42% in Savitha MR et al [21] . The gender wise discrimination of the children continues even before birth and continues throughout the life, and utilization of health care services is another example of this continued discrimination as evident by less number of female in the above studies.…”

“…72 out of 82 (87.8%) were between 6-24 months. Fifty cases (60.9%) were infants from 6 months to 1 year of age and 22 children (26.8%) belonged to age group 13-24 months, which is quite comparable to studies conducted by Malla T et al [1] , Hussain SQ et al [17] and Rijal P et al [18] . This signifies that ALRTI is most common in age group of <1 year.…”

“…Mean MCV, MCH and MCHC was 64 fl, 17pg and 25 gm/dl respectively inmicrocytic hypochromic anemia and 80fl, 25pg and 32gm/dl in normocytic normochromic anemia. In other studies done by Hussain SQ et al [17] had 64.4% of anemic patient with 78.9% having microcytic hypochromic picture of RBC morphology, Ramakrishnan K et al [20] 74% hadanemia, and Savitha MR et al [21] 76.92% had anemia; However, study done by MouradS et al [27] had only 32% of cases with anemia. In this study, chi square test of association showed that among ALRTI cases, chances of IDA was 3 times more among the respondent with Hb<11 gm/dl as compared to respondent with Hb>11 gm/dl [ …”

“…In study done by Malla T et al [1] , cough was present in all cases with ALRTI followed by fever (96.42%), chest indrawing (85.71%), fast breathing (71.42%), shortness of breath (57.85%), poor feeding (57.14%) and noisy breathing (35.71%). In study done by Hussian SQ et al [17] , all cases presented with cough followed by fever (94.5%), chest indrawing (83.6%) and fast breathing (67.3%). Among vital signs, mean of temperature, pulse rate and respiratory rate were higher in IDA cases as compared to those without iron deficiency.…”

Deferral for low hemoglobin is not associated with increased risk of infection in Danish blood donors

“…Several studies have identified very low Hb levels as a risk factor for lower respiratory tract infections; however, those studies were carried out in children; therefore, the conclusions cannot be generalized to the general population or to blood donors . None of the studies accounted for comorbidity.…”