TY - JOUR T1 - Characterisation of children hospitalised with pneumonia in central Vietnam: A prospective study JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/13993003.02256-2018 SP - 1802256 AU - Phuong T.K. Nguyen AU - Hoang T. Tran AU - Dominic A. Fitzgerald AU - Thach S. Tran AU - Stephen M. Graham AU - Ben J. Marais Y1 - 2019/01/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/early/2019/03/27/13993003.02256-2018.abstract N2 - Background Pneumonia is the most common reason for paediatric hospital admission in Vietnam. The potential value of using the World Health Organisation (WHO) case management approach in Vietnam has not been documented.Methods We performed a prospective descriptive study of all children (2–59 months) admitted with “pneumonia” (per clinician assessment) to the Da Nang Hospital for Women and Children to characterise their disease profile and assess risk factors for an adverse outcome. The disease profile was classified using WHO pneumonia criteria, with tachypnea or chest indrawing as defining clinical signs. Adverse outcome was defined as death, intensive care unit admission, tertiary care transfer or hospital stay>10 days.Results Of 4206 admissions, 1758 (41.8%) were classified as “no pneumonia” using WHO criteria and only 252 (6.0%) met revised criteria for “severe pneumonia”. The inpatient death rate was low (0.4% of admissions) with most deaths (11/16; 68.8%) occurring in the “severe pneumonia” group. An adverse outcome was recorded in 18.7% of all admissions; 60.7% of the “severe pneumonia” group. Children were hospitalised for a median of 7 days at an average cost of 253 USD per admission. Risk factors for adverse outcome included WHO classified “severe pneumonia”, age <1 year, low birth weight, previous recent admission with an acute respiratory infection and recent tuberculosis exposure, while breastfeeding, day care attendance and preadmission antibiotic use were associated with reduced risk.Conclusion Few hospital admissions met WHO criteria for “severe pneumonia”, suggesting potential unnecessary hospitalisation and use of intravenous antibiotics. Better characterisation of the underlying diagnosis requires careful consideration.FootnotesThis manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the European Respiratory Journal. It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJ online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article.Conflict of interest: Dr. Nguyen has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Tran has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Fitzgerald has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Tran has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Graham has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Marais has nothing to disclose. ER -