The most common respiratory condition admitted to the pediatric medical ward and the trend of admission pre and post COVID at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation

ABSTRACT

Objective: To determine the the clinical epidemiology of respiratory condition requiring admission at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation Pediatric Medical Ward (GPHC PMW). Method(s) Retrospective, cross sectional study design with a sample size of 531.Inclusion criteria included 29 days-13 years old, admitted to PMW from 1 Jan 2019-31 Dec 2020 with a respiratory diagnosis. Data such as date of admission, diagnosis, age and gender were collected from records. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board. Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS Results: 1. The most common respiratory pathology was Pneumonia 244 of the 531 cases. Mixed infections accounted for 132 , Bronchiolitis 78, Asthma 69, croup 5, RAD 2, Tonsilitis 1. 2. The most frequent age group admitted were the Infants 44%. 3. The male gender dominated at 64% while female accounted for 36% of total admissions. 4. The most documented admissions occurred in the months of November at 11.1% followed by July at 10.9%. 5. Of the total admissions for respiratory pathology in this study, 90% occurred in the Pre-COVID era (2019) while 10% occurred Post-COVID (2020). Conclusion(s) Pneumonia predominantly affected the younger generations, specifically the infants. With increasing age however, the infectious respiratory pathologies were less frequent while the obstructive causes took the lead. The increase in respiratory admissions was associated with a seasonal pattern and there was a significant decline in admissions in the early post COVID outbreak period.