Time to recovery from severe pneumonia and its predictors among pediatric patients admitted in Mizan-Tepi University Teaching Hospital, South West Ethiopia, 2022

Abstract Objective Despite trials and programs for the prevention of childhood mortality due to pneumonia, Ethiopia is among the top five countries with the highest number of deaths due to pneumonia. Although the prevalence of pneumonia has increased in the above-mentioned trials, little is known about the recovery time from severe pneumonia and its predictors in the study area. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the time to recovery from severe pneumonia and its predictors among pediatric patients admitted to Mizan-Tepi University Teaching Hospital, Ethiopia, in 2022. Methods A total of 591 children admitted for severe pneumonia were selected using simple random sampling. Data were entered into Epi-data version 4.4.2.1 and exported to STATA version 14 for analysis, and the assumptions of Cox proportional hazard models and goodness of fit were assessed through Shoenfeld residual and Cox-Snell residual, respectively. Bivariate and multivariable Cox regression models were used to identify the predictors of mortality. Results This study revealed that 91.54% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 89.00–93.53) of participants recovered with an incidence rate of 24.10 (95% CI: 22.15–26.21) per 100 person-day–observations. The hmedian recovery time of children was 4 days (95% CI: 2–6). Children who were not exclusively breastfed (AHR = 1.3; 95% CI: 1.03–1.66), who had a history of inability to suck/feed (AHR = 0.81; 95% CI: 0.65–0.99) were independent predictors of the time to recovery. Conclusions Children with severe pneumonia who had not exclusively breastfed and who had a history of inability to suck/feed were independent predictors of time to recovery. Therefore, all stakeholders and concerned health care providers should focus more on early diagnosis and management and hasten early recovery based on the identified factors.