Determinants of pneumonia among 2–59 months old children at Debre Markos referral hospital, Northwest Ethiopia: a case-control study

BACKGROUND: Pneumonia is a significant public health problem globally. The early identification and management of the determinants of pneumonia demands clear evidence. But, there is a limited data on this issue in the current study area. Thus, this study aimed to identify the determinants of pneumonia among 2-59 months old children at Debre Markos Referral Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia. METHODS: A Hospital based unmatched case-control study was conducted among 334 (167 Cases and 167 Controls) children at Debre Markos Referral Hospital from February 1 to March 30, 2018. Consecutive sampling technique was employed and data were collected with a pre-tested interviewer administered questionnaire. Data were entered into Epi-Data version 4.2, and analyzed using SPSS version 25 software. Bi-variable and multi-variable logistic regression analyses were fitted. Variables having p-value < 0.05 were considered as statistically significant. RESULTS: A total of 328(164 cases and 164 controls) 2-59 months old children were included in this study. Not opening windows daily [AOR:6.15(2.55,14.83)], household near to the street [AOR:4.23(1.56,11.44)], child care by the house workers and relatives [AOR:2.97 (1.11,7.93)], using only water for hand washing before child feeding [AOR:3.81 (1.51, 9.66)], mixed feeding practice from birth to six months [AOR: 7.62 (2.97, 19.55)], having upper respiratory tract infection in the last 2 weeks for the child [AOR: 5.33 (2.16, 13.19)] and children with history of co- residence with URTI family [AOR: 6.17 (2.36,16.15)] were found to be determinants of pneumonia. CONCLUSIONS: The main contributing factors for pneumonia in this study are preventable with no or minimal cost. Therefore, we recommend appropriate and adequate health education regarding pneumonia prevention and control.