Frequency of Nutritional Rickets in Children 2-59 Months of Age with Severe Pneumonia

Objective: To determine the frequency of nutritional rickets among children 2–59 months of age presenting with severe pneumonia. Study Design: Descriptive cross sectional study Place and Duration: From February 2015 to July 2015 at Pediatric Medicine Department, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Hospital, Muzaffarabad Materials and Methods: A total of 151 children 2-59 months of age with severe pneumonia admitted to the Pediatric Medicine Department, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Hospital, Muzaffarabad were enrolled. Blood samples were taken to measure serum calcium, serum phosphorus and alkaline phosphatase for the diagnosis of nutritional rickets. Chest radiograph done for diagnosing pneumonia along with the clinical features and were verified by the consultant. The data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Results: The mean age of the children was 9.5±5.1 months. The median age was 8 months. Out of 151 children 86 (57%) were males while 65 (43%) were females. In this sample of children with severe pneumonia, 107 (70.9%) diagnosed to have nutritional rickets. According to the descriptive results, among children of 2-6 months (78.2%) and 7-12 months (73.5%) had higher proportion of nutritional rickets than children 13-59 months of age who had (59.6%) children with rickets. Boys had higher proportion of nutritional rickets (79.1%) than girls (60%), and this difference was statistically significant (p=0.010). Conclusions: The children who have nutritional rickets are frequently hospitalized for lower respiratory tract infection. So the children presenting with pneumonia should be investigated promptly for rickets.