Aisha Iftikhar, Muhammad Haroon Hamid, Qaisar Masood.
Spectrum of Risk Factors Associated with Complications among Children Admitted with Enteric Fever.
Pak Paed J Nov ;43(2):80-6.

Developing countries are still harboring enteric fever. More worrisome are various complications of this disease, which can be anticipated in the presence of risk factors. Objectives: To identify the risk factors associated with complications among children with enteric fever admitted to a tertiary care hospital. Study Design: Case control study. Place and Duration of Study: Medical unit of Children Hospital. Lahore Material and Methods: We included 200 admitted patients (80 cases and 120 controls) of both genders with age range of 6 months to 16 years. Complication were mainly related to CNS, hepatobiliary, abdominal and bone and joints. Possible risk factors and confounding variables were dichotomized. Univariate analysis and logistic regression analysis was done. P-value of less than 0.05 and OR with a 95% confidence interval (CI) that did not include 1 was considered significant. Results: Univariate analysis revealed weight, severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, Hepatosplenomegaly, leucopenia, thrombocytopenia severe anemia and poor socioeconomic status are significantly associated with Complications with odds ratio of 2.0 (1.12-3.84), 2.67 (CI 1.38-5.1), 2.10 (1.148-3.866) ,2.18 (1.2-3.9) ,2.8 (1.52-5.21) ,2.05 (1.146 3.67), 2.47 (1.38-4.45), 2.32 (1.29-4.16) respectively. Bivariate logistic regression showed no significant change in association of all these factors except weight becoming insignificant. Conclusion: Among the risk factors, features like severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, hepatosplenomegaly, leucopenia, thrombocytopenia, severe anemia and poor socioeconomic status were more commonly seen in patients with complicated enteric fever admitted in our set-up. So the presence of these factors may suggest higher chances of developing complication in children with enteric fever.

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