Pattern of Morbidity and Outcome of Hospitalized Children: A retrospective Study in Goldfish Sea Hospital Kano, Nigeria

Abstract

Under-five mortality is still very high in the African sub-region. In Nigeria alone, more than 2300 children aged less than 5years die every day. Nigeria is the second largest contributor to global under-five mortalities. More than 60% of the medical conditions in Nigeria are attended to in private hospitals. This study aimed to document the morbidity pattern and outcomes of admissions among children admitted into a private hospital in Kano metropolis, Nigeria. This was a retrospective descriptive study conducted over three years period. The study population includes all children aged 0 to 15years that were admitted into the paediatric wards of the hospital in Kano, Nigeria. The age, gender, diagnoses and disease outcome of the patients were retrieved from the hospital medical records. Data analysis was done using SPSS Version 25. There were 1966 paediatric cases admitted over the study period. Males were 1110 (56.5%) and females were 856 (43.5%), with a male-to-female ratio of 1.3 :1.  Over 90% of the children were less than 5years. Birth asphyxia (21.9%), Malaria (15.3%), Neonatal jaundice (14.7%), Acute diarrheal disease (9.5%), and pneumonia (9.4%) were the leading causes of admission.  The patients who died during admission constituted 2.3% of the total admitted patients, with 66.9% of these deaths occurring in children under five years of age.