Abstract:
Background: Acute respiratory infection remains the major cause of child morbidity and
mortality and is the main reason for utilization of health services among children. Knowing the
determinants of acute respiratory infection is useful for prevention and intervention programs
that are aimed to control the disease. There is limited information on the determinant of acute
respiratory infection in the study area.
Objective: The main objective of the study was to identify determinants of acute respiratory
infection among under-five children attending public health centers of Dire Inchini District, West
Shoa, Oromia, Ethiopia, 2022.
Methods: A facility-based unmatched case-control study was conducted from September 1 to
30, 2022. Interviewer administered structured questionnaire was used for data collection with the
caregiver of under-five children from a sample of 284 (95 cases and 189 controls). Systematic
random sampling was used to recruit study subjects. Data were entered and cleaned using EPI DATA version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 26 for analysis. Descriptive statistics were used
to summarize descriptive data. Binary logistic regression analysis was performed and variables
with a p-value < 0.25 were entered into multivariable logistic regression. Statistical significance
was declared at a p-value <0.05 and adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence interval (AOR with
95% CI) were estimated to identify the association. Finally, the results were summarized and
presented by tables, charts and graphs.
Results: Data were collected from 95 cases and 189 controls. The mean age of the children was
22 months (Mean ± SD; 23.79 ± 15.7 8). Multivariable analysis revealed that age of the child
(AOR 2.76, 95% CI: 1.07-7.12), care giver being married (AOR 2.49, 95% CI 1.04-5.97), no
formal education of care giver (AOR 3.64, 95% CI 1.09-12.16), presence of child during cooking
(AOR 3.43, 95% CI 1.78-6.59), children’s having, history of diarrhea (AOR 2.23, 95% CI 1.16-
4.32), and early initiation of child breastfeeding (AOR 2.49, 95% CI 1.33-4.64) were found to be
significant predictors of acute respiratory infection among under five children.
Conclusion: In this study, age of the child, care givers being married, no formal education of
care giver, presence of child during cooking, co morbidities with diarrhea and initiation of child
breastfeeding were identified as significant determinants of acute respiratory infections among
children. Together with the prevention and treatment of disease, interventions to modify
underlying risk factors such as effective health education on importance of proper hygiene
practices, promotion of early initiation of breastfeeding, and limiting the presence of child while
cooking should be considered among the strategies to reduce subsequent acute respiratory
infections among children.
