WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

*Enas Qais Saeed, Rafaat Adnan Hadi, Israa Alaa Sabri

ABSTRACT

Background: For children less than five years old, pneumonia ranks among the top causes of illness and death worldwide. Developing nations account for 95% of all cases of clinical pneumonia in children under the age of five on the planet. When it comes to forecasting which kids may experience unfavorable outcomes like clinical worsening, serious illness, or the emergence of complications, there is a lack of data. Aim of study: To throw light on the occurrence of pneumonia in infants and its severity in Baghdad and to evaluate the possible factors that may be associated with its severity. Methods: A cross-sectional study with analytic components that was conducted at Pediatric ward in four hospitals in Baghdad during a period of one year from October 2024 to October 2025. It included 283 patients aged up to 12 months, admitted to the pediatric ward, and diagnosed with pneumonia. Severity of pneumonia is defined as pneumonia plus inability to drink, persistent vomiting, convulsions, lethargy, stridor. Childhood pneumonia cases were classified into two groups: non-severe and severe pneumonia. Results: In this study, 27.6% of infants were diagnosed with severe pneumonia while the remaining 72.4% were with non-severe pneumonia. Four factors were found to be important independent risk factors for severe pneumonia among infants. These factors were low birthweight, prematurity, lack of immunization, and congenital heart disease. Conclusion: The prevalence of severe pneumonia among infants is relatively high. The possible risk factors that increase the incidence of severe pneumonia were low birth weight, prematurity, lack of immunization, and congenital heart diseases.

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