Introduction:

Acute respiratory infections are among the main leading causes of death in early childhood, highlighting community-acquired pneumonia as one of the most important.

Objective:

To determine the factors associated with Severe Community-Acquired Pneumonia in children under five years of age.

Material and Method:

An analytical prospective non-paired case-control study was conducted in children with Severe Community-Acquired Pneumonia admitted to “Dr Ángel Arturo Aballí” Maternal and Child Health Hospital in Havana. A total of 255 cases were evaluated. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were carried out, calculating the simple OR and adjusted for the rest of the variables.

Results:

The variables with simple OR values that show significant association with the Severe Community-Acquired Pneumonia were: age, malnutrition, non-effective breastfeeding, history of repeated respiratory infections, passive smoking, moan, retraction, tachypnea, tachycardia, complications, use of prior antibiotic, and left location of pneumonia. Likewise, it occurred with white blood cell count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, hemoglobin, serum albumin, C-reactive protein, and the highest hospital stay.

Conclusions:

Age, ineffective breastfeeding, passive smoking, complications, and stay were the group of factors that integrated the function of variables associated with independent risk of Severe Community-Acquired Pneumonia.

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