Clinical Pediatrics: Open Access
Open Access
ISSN: 2572-0775
ISSN: 2572-0775
Charisse B Pulmano
University of the City of Manila, Philippines
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Clin Pediatr
Pneumonia continues to be a significant cause of infant and childhood morbidity and mortality in the Philippines. In the Philippines, pneumonia still continues to be one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity among infants. With this as a social burden, various strategies have been implemented to decrease childhood morbidity and mortality which is congruent to Millennium Development Goals. In line with this, the World Health Organization strongly advocates the importance of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life. Supplemental breast feeding is not recommended until at least age two and exclusive breastfeeding may be continued thereafter. In local setting, the Department of Health has launched a campaign entitled breast feeding TSEK: Tama, Sapat at Exlusibo. This program has been implemented and warrants strict compliance to reduce childhood mortality from evitable diseases. In line with this, the author wants to determine the association of breastfeeding practices and selected clinical outcomes of the PCAP C patients aged 3 months to 2 years in a tertiary government hospital from January 2013-January 2016. Main outcomes were identified as to length of hospital stay (3-5 days, 6-10 days, >10 days), disposition (discharged improved, mortality), presence of complications such as sepsis, pneumothorax, pleural effusion, empyema, or warranting intubation (with/without) among others. This study used a retrospective cohort design gathering data from records of patients admitted in a tertiary hospital in a given set period. Plan of analysis used percentage, risk ratio/ chi square test of association. From this study, it was concluded that exclusive breastfeeding can significantly lower the risk of complications of pneumonia and mostly patient dispositions are markedly improved. In fact, it was found that the risk of moderate to long hospitalization, risk of having complications, and risk of dying are 2.91 (95% CI: 1.91, 4.43) and 3.05 (95% CI:1.86, 5.04), 3.33 (95% CI:2.36, 4.70), and 2.23 (1.19, 4.20) times higher, respectively, among mixed fed patients compared to breastfed patients
E-mail: charisse.pulmano@yahoo.com