Acute Respiratory Infection in Malaysian Children

A cross-sectional community-based survey was conducted to determine the prevalence of acute respiratory infection (ARI) in children below 7 years of age and to obtain baseline information for an intervention programme. A total of 6190 households comprising 38632 persons with 12273 children (32 per c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of tropical pediatrics (1980) 1994-12, Vol.40 (6), p.334-340
Main Authors: Lye, M. S., Deavi, U., Lai, K. P. F, Kaur, H., Nair, R. C., Choo, K. E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acute Disease
Bacterial diseases
Bacterial diseases of the respiratory system
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child, Preschool
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Human bacterial diseases
Humans
Infant
Infectious diseases
Malaysia - epidemiology
Male
Medical sciences
Prevalence
Respiratory Tract Infections - epidemiology
Tropical medicine
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Summary:A cross-sectional community-based survey was conducted to determine the prevalence of acute respiratory infection (ARI) in children below 7 years of age and to obtain baseline information for an intervention programme. A total of 6190 households comprising 38632 persons with 12273 children (32 per cent) below 7 years of age were surveyed. Information on socio-demographic variables, environmental sanitation, occurrence of ARI and diarrhoea, treatment seeking behaviour during episodes of those illnesses and immunizations among children were obtained. Thirty per cent of children had experienced ARI in the 2-week period prior to the interview, and 94 per cent had mild ARI, 1 per cent had moderate and 5 per cent bad severe ARI. There was lack of concurrence between mother's perception of severity and that of the investigators' (Kappa coefficient=0.083 (95 per cent CI=0.017–0.149). Twenty-four and 39 per cent of severe and moderate ARI, respectively, were reported by mothers to be mild. There is cause for concern as these children may not receive timely and appropriate treatment. The findings from this study contribute to identification of target populations and priority areas for health education of the population. The survey has provided useful baseline data for the implementation of an intervention programme for the control of ARI in children.
ISSN:0142-6338
1465-3664
DOI:10.1093/tropej/40.6.334