Association between Parental Smoking and Pneumonia among Children Less Than 5 Years of Age

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Pneumonia continues to be the biggest killerworldwide of children under five years of age. Although theimplementation of safe, effective and affordable interventionshas reduced pneumonia.Objective: The objective of this study was to find associationbetween parental smoking and pneumonia in children under 5years of age presenting to tertiary care hospitals in Peshawarcity, Pakistan.Methodology: It was Unmatched Case Control Study with aratio of 11. Cases were children less than five years of agepresenting to four major tertiary care hospitals with Pneumoniainfection. Controls were selected from same hospital withmedical condition other than respiratory infection.Results: Among the total sample of 248 children, 67 (27%) ofthe children’s parents were smokers while 181 (83%) were notsmoking. Pneumonia infections were twice likely to developamong those children who were exposed to parental smokingat home with an odd ratio of 2.02 (95% C 1.14-3.60)Conclusion: Children exposed to second hand smoking are athigh risk of developing respiratory problems like asthma later inlife. More effective policies and strategies are required to limitthe second hand smoking exposure at homes.