Adherence to WHO guidelines on severe pneumonia management in children and its impact on outcome: an observational study at Jinka General Hospital in Ethiopia

INTRODUCTION: Poor adherence to guidelines during empirical antibiotic prescription in low-income countries could increase antimicrobial resistance without improving outcomes. Revised World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines published in 2014 on childhood (2–59 months) pneumonia re-defined the classification of severe pneumonia and changed the first-line treatment. The adherence to WHO guidelines in southern Ethiopia at the hospital level is unknown. We sought to determine the adherence to WHO guidelines on severe pneumonia first-line treatment in children in an Ethiopian referral hospital and assess the impact of non-adherence on patient outcomes. METHODS: An observational study was conducted on all children (2–59 months) clinically diagnosed with severe pneumonia and admitted to the Pediatric Ward of Jinka Hospital from 1 June 2021 to 31 May 2022. Exclusion criteria included a known HIV infection, ongoing antibiotic treatment before the event not related to acute pneumonia, or any other severe bacterial infection, confirmed or suspected. Adherence to guidelines was defined as first-line treatment with ampicillin or benzylpenicillin and gentamicin at the recommended dose. We compared the patients treated adherently vs. non-adherently. For categorical variables, the chi-square or Fisher's exact test was used, while for continuous variables, the Mann–Whitney U-test was used. Multivariate logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between adherence and demographic and clinical characteristics. RESULTS: During the observational period, 266 patients were registered as having severe pneumonia with an age between 2 and 59 months. After excluding 114 patients due to missing charts or other exclusion criteria, a total of 152 patients were included in the analysis. Of these, 78 (51%) were girls with a median age of 10 months (IQR 7–14). Overall, 75 (49%) patients received therapy according to the WHO guidelines. Compared to patients treated adherently to the guidelines, patients not treated adherently had similar outcomes [median length of stay of 3 (IQR 3–5) and 4 (IQR 3–6) days], median duration of oxygen therapy of 2 (IQR 1–3) for both the groups, and self-discharge rates of 5% and 6.5%, respectively). CONCLUSION: Adherence to the revised WHO guideline was limited and not associated with outcomes. Efforts should focus on reducing the gap between theory and practice.