Abstract:
Background: Recent estimates from the World Health Organization suggest that pneumonia is
responsible for 20% of deaths in the under-five age group, leading to 3 million deaths per year. Of
these deaths, two thirds occur during infancy and more than 90% occur in the developing countries.
Out of fifteen countries that have the highest death rate from clinical pneumonia in children
younger than five-year-old, Ethiopia ranks as number four in the world. Regardless of this
fact, efforts to identify the prevalence and associated factors of pneumonia have been limited
in Ethiopia.
Objective: To determine the prevalence and identify the associated factors of pneumonia
among 2 -59 months old children in Gumay district, Jimma zone, 2017.
Methods: Community based cross sectional study was conducted in Gumay district from
March 1- 26 /2017. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to proportionally draw
347households from 5 selected kebeles. Pre-tested Interviewer administered structured
questionnaire was employed to collect data from households. Health extension workers and
diploma nurses and Public health officers have participated in the survey as data collectors
and supervisors, respectively. The data was entered in to Epi-Data version 3and then
exported to Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20 for analysis.
Result: The prevalence of pneumonia in 2 to 59 months old children found to be 7.5%. a
child 2-11 months of age( AOR = 3.17;95%CI 1.6,6.3; p-value= 0.024), Cooking place
(AOR=5.7; 95% CI 1.83,18; p-value=0.004), living in houses with less than two windows
(AOR= 3.18; 95% CI 1.07 ,9.5; p-value =0.034), location of the child during cooking
(AOR=5.15; 95%CI 1.6, 16.7; p-value= 0.008) and being unvaccinated(AOR=4.76, 95%
CI;1.69, 13.37; p-value=0.003) were found to be significant predictors of pneumonia among
children 2 to 59 months of age in this study.
Conclusion and recommendation: -The study pointed out some modifiable risk factors of
pneumonia in the study area. Age of the child, cooking in living house, number of windows
the house is constructed with, carrying the child on the back during cooking and vaccination
status of the child were the risk factors associated with pneumonia. The district health office
should raise the awareness of the community on the adverse health effect of indoor air
pollution resulting from the use of biomass fuel in the living house, health education to
promote acceptability of vaccinating children and proper child cares practices.
