Missed opportunities for earlier treatment of children admitted with severe lower respiratory tract infections in a tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Background and Objective: To find missed opportunities for earlier detection and intervention of the children admitted in a tertiary level hospital with severe lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI). Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Eastern India over 1-year period. Children of 1 month to 12 years of age consecutively admitted with severe LRTI were included. Data collection forms were used to collect the desired data. Results: The data of 42 children were collected. Majority (69%) were ≤5 years old, and were boys (59.5%). Around 57% of the mothers were literate, and 54% of mothers were not working (homemakers). Majority (67%) of the families belonged to the lower socioeconomic class. Thirty-three children (78.5%) children had a delay in seeking medical attention (62.5% of children of literate and 100% of children of illiterate mothers). There was no statistically significant difference in the delay in seeking medical attention between children of working and nonworking mothers. Majority (76%) of the mothers either used modern medicine or else used other forms of medicine such as homeopathic, Ayurvedic, and traditional. Delay in referral was more evident in children who did not follow the prescribed treatment correctly or changed their doctors frequently. Conclusions: In order to detect the missed opportunities for earlier treatment in cases of severe LRTI, mothers need to be educated so that they can assess any abnormality at early stages and come to health care facilities as early as possible.