Seasonal variations among admitted paediatric patients at tertiary care hospital, Gadap Town, Karachi, Pakistan

Abstract

Background: In pediatrics, the season is one of the elements contributing to the etiological factors of community based diseases. Awareness of this variation can help the physicians for prevention and counseling of the patients. A cross-sectional observational study was designed with non-probability convenient sampling technique to determine the frequency of patients admitted to the paediatric ward of the hospital in a whole calendar year and to ascertain which disease presentation is most common. Methods: Study conducted at paediatric ward of Al-Tibri Medical College and Hospital Karachi, Pakistan having patients admitted during May 2018 to April 2019. After ethical approval and informed consent from their parents/ guardian, a total of 734 paediatric patients that were admitted from paediatric OPD/ emergency were selected for the study. Paediatric patients that were referred, in emergency/ ICU and surgical paediatric patients were excluded from the study. Chi-square test was applied to evaluate the statistical variation among the patients.Results: From the 734 patients, 357 (48.6%) patients were of acute gastroenteritis, 104 (14.2%) of respiratory illness, 86 (11.7%) of viral fever, 67 (9.1%) of urinary tract infection, 36 (4.9%) of neurological illness, 29 (4.0%) of protein calorie malnutrition, 25 (3.4%) of enteric fever, 20 (2.7%) of haematological illness and 10 (1.4%) patients were admitted due to sepsis.Conclusion: Our study concluded that majority of the patients admitted were of acute gastroenteritis / admitted due to gastric issues, therefore further studies in the vicinity would help to better understand the issues and help plan a strategy to combat the diseases.

Pediatric infectious diseases admissions: Sex differences and seasonal variations

“…On the overall in this study, infections occurred more significantly during rainy (cold and wet) season than dry, which was in agreement with the findings in some earlier studies [3,22,25]. Seasonal variations of infectious diseases have been variously attributed to changes in atmospheric conditions, the prevalence or virulence of the pathogen, or the behavior of the host [11,12], which could be aggravated by global climatic change [13,26]. Multiple climatic factors including temperature, humidity, rainfall, and wind speed have been implicated as contributing to increased infections during the cold and wet season [27].…”

“…Seasonal influence is one of the elements contributing to the etiological factors of community-based diseases, including childhood infections [11]. Seasonal occurrences of infectious diseases have been variously attributed to changes in atmospheric conditions [12].…”

“…Improved understanding of infectious diseases seasonality will therefore give insight into host-pathogen interactions, which will improve the accuracy of public health surveillance and forecasting systems [13]. Also, awareness of this variation can aid the physicians in the prevention and counseling of the patients [11], and for the hospital or health managers to be well prepared for each season.…”