Pattern of Childhood Morbidity in a Private Paediatric Centre in Lagos Nigeria

Introduction: There is global reduction of childhood mortality rate but this is not reflective in child survival both in subSaharan Africa and South Asia which accounts for approximately 50% of global burden of childhood deaths. There are various causes of morbidity and mortality among children, these aetiologies also vary from country to country, though infectious diseases {diarrheal diseases, respiratory tract infections, malaria, measles, HIV/AIDS}, neonatal illnesses {neonatal infections, perinatal asphyxia, prematurity] and varying forms of malnutrition are the predominant causes of childhood illness and death in sub Saharan Africa. This study aim to review the pattern of childhood illness in a private paediatric hospital, determine the predominant cause of childhood morbidity in an urban area and evaluate the mode of payment. Methodology: This is a retrospective descriptive study of pattern of childhood illness in a private paediatric hospital in Lagos; Abby’s Paediatric Care, Omole Phase 2, Lagos, a 10 bedded paediatric facility. Detailed information of each hospital consultation/care was retrieved from the Electronic Medical Records [EMR] of the hospital consultations over a 2years period [August 2017-June 2019]. Data obtained were analyzed using the statistical package for social science version 22.0. Results: A total of 429 hospital consultations were made over the two-year period with M: F ratio of 1:1.1. Children aged between 12-60months constitute 51% of total cases seen within this period. 69% of total cases seen were due to infections and 17% were well visits. Also, 273 (64%) of the visits were paid out of pocket and only 64(14.9%) required hospital admission over the period reviewed. Conclusion: Infectious diseases still rank as the commonest cause of childhood morbidity in our environment and most patients still pay out of pocket for the management of their illnesses. Copyright @ 2019: This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium for non-commercial use (NonCommercial, or CC-BY-NC) provided the original author and source are credited.