Pneumonia Case Study

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Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung influencing primarily the microscopic air sacs known as alveoli. The alveoli fill with fluid or pus, which makes breathing painful and limits oxygen intake. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), pneumonia killed an estimated 935000 children under the age of five in 2003 and accounting for 15% of all deaths of children under five years old. Almost 40,000 to 70,000 people die each year in United State because of pneumonia. Childhood pneumonia has been as the major “forgotten killer of children” by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO).

Various kinds of infectious agents, including viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites caused Pneumonia. Bacterial pneumonia is pneumonia caused by bacteria. Bacterial pneumonia can influence anyone at any age. It can develop on its own and after a serious cold or influenza. The most common cause of bacterial pneumonia in children is Streptococcus pneumonia and it also known as pneumococcal pneumonia. Pneumococcal pneumonia reasons up to 175,000 hospital admissions a year in the United States (Mary Elizabeth Dallas, 2013). Besides that, viral pneumonia is pneumonia caused by a virus or cold. It is more regular in children.

We use logistic regression to do the analysis where the dependent variable is the indicator for hospitalization for pneumonia whereas the independent variables are age of mother, urban environment for mother, alcohol use by mother during, pregnancy, cigarette use by mother during pregnancy, region of the country, mother at poverty level, normal birth weight, education of mother, number of siblings of child, month the child was weaned, month the child on solid food and age of child with pneumonia