Comorbidities Associated with Increased Risk of Death among Children Aged 2-59 Months with Severe Pneumonia in Western Kenya

Globally, severe pneumonia remains the leading infectious cause of death in children younger than 5 years. Comorbidities increase the risk of death among children with severe pneumonia across age groups and regions; however, the data is scanty on specific comorbidities. The study, therefore, was aimed at improving an understanding of the risk of death due to different comorbidities among children with severe pneumonia. The findings will not only inform the clinical practices but also improve the interventions. We conducted a hospital-based cross-sectional study of 141 children aged 2-59 months in Bondo Sub-County hospital in Western Kenya using inpatient data health records of children admitted to the pediatric ward. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to determine the occurrence of comorbidities and the risk of death due to comorbidities. The findings show that 57.5% of the children had at least one type of comorbidity including 36.5% malnutrition, 28.6% HIV exposed uninfected, 25.4% sickle cell disease, 7.9% HIV infected and 1.6% other comorbidities. Our findings showed that a child admitted to the hospital with comorbidities had six times increased risk of death compared to a child with severe pneumonia only [OR 6.06 (1.32-27.78) P = 0.02]. We also observed four times increased risk of death among HIV-exposed uninfected children [OR 3.92 95% CI (1.18-13.04) P = 0.03] and the risk of death increased six times when children had both HIV-exposed uninfected and malnutrition as comorbidities [OR 6.02 95% CI (1.61-22.58) P = 0.008] High comorbidities among children with severe pneumonia and increased risk of death, in HIV-exposed uninfected and malnourished children. There is a need for improved clinical practice and intervention for severe pneumonia, HIV exposed uninfected children. There should be a review of the immunization schedule for pneumonia among HIV-exposed uninfected children.