Risk Factors for Severe Lower Respiratory Tract Infections among Infants in Tripoli-Libya: A Case-Control Study

Abstract

Acute Lower respiratory tract infections (ALRTI) are major cause of mortality and morbidity among children
worldwide and particularly children in developing countries
The objective of this case control- study is to evaluate the risk factors for hospitalization with severe ALRTI in
Tripoli-Libya. The study was conducted from November 2012 to March 2013.
Cases were recruited from all infant aged 1 to12 months admitted to Tripoli children’s hospital with severe ALRTI
and who met the inclusion criteria during that period. Controls were recruited from vaccination centers in different
area inside Tripoli. Mothers were interviewed for potential risk factors using pre-designed questionnaire includes
infant’ age, sex, mother age, maternal education level, occupation, parity, pattern of feeding in the first four months
of life, number of house hold ,number of persons sleeping with the infant in the same bed room and passive smokers. 154 cases and 194 controls were enrolled in the study.
In logistic regression model, significantly increased risk of hospitalization was associated with, young infant less
than 3 months of age (odds ratio (OR) = 2.2, 95% CI 1.3-3.8), formula feed infant (OR=2.3, 95% CI 1.1-4.8), large
number of house hold (OR=1.3, 95% CI 1.1-1.6) and increased number of person sleeping with infant at the same
room (OR=1.9, 95% CI 1.4-2.4).
On another hand highly educated mothers (OR= 0.42, 95% CI 0.2-0.8) and mother’ age above 30 years (OR = 0.19,
95% CI 0.08-0.4) were protective factors.
In this study several risk factors for severe ALRTI were identified, some factors are amenable to interventions