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Pattern and prevalence of common pediatric illnesses presenting in a private hospital in Onitsha, south east Nigeria: A comparative analysis.

Josephat Chinawa*, Aniwada EC, Ugwuna NC, Eze JN, Ndu Ikenna K

Background: Pattern and distribution of common pediatric illnesses are issues often reported in government and teaching hospitals, but very few are reported from private settings. Objective: To determine the pattern and prevalence of common pediatric diseases presenting at a private pediatric specialist hospital. Material and methods: This is a hospital based descriptive cross sectional study of children seen in a private hospital from March 2012-March 2014. In all, 2942 patients were studied as seen. Diagnosis of the pediatric illnesses was made based on painstaking history taking, physical examination and thorough investigations including blood film reports, full blood counts, chest X rays, blood cultures, urine microscopy and cultures when necessary and affordable. Patients were managed according to their diagnoses. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 20. Data was summarized using percentages and comparisons subjected to χ2 analysis with p at <0.05 as significant. These are presented in tables. Results: There were 1636 (55.6%) male patients and 1306 (44.4%) female patients. Most frequent presenting age group were those aged 0-12 months 1424 (48.4%). Malaria was most frequently found pediatric illness 737 (25%) followed by Reactive airway disease (RAD) 529 (18.0%), diarrhea disease 150 (5.1%), Sepsis 66 (2.2%), UTI 58 (2.0%), Pneumonia 22 (0.8%) and URTI 20 (0.7%), a good number were comorbidities and constituted 864 (29.4%) of the presentations. Conclusion: Malaria is the most prevalent illness noted in the study however early and accurate diagnosis of reactive airway disease will help to avert numerous complications that may follow its misdiagnosis and administration of wrong treatment.