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.