RISK-FACTORS FOR PNEUMONIA AMONG CHILDREN IN A BRAZILIAN METROPOLITAN-AREA

Objective. To investigate risk factors for pneumonia for infants <2 ye ars of age. Design. Hospital-based, case-control study with neighborho od control subjects.Setting. Urban area in southern Brazil. Subjects. Five hundred ten infants with radiologically confirmed pneumonia who w ere admitted to a pediatric hospital. One age-matched neighborhood con trol subject was selected for each case. Results. Multiple conditional regression modeling was used to control for confounding, taking into account the hierarchical relationships between risk factors. The incid ence of radiologically confirmed pneumonia was associated with low pat ernal education, the number of persons in the household, young materna l age, attendance at day-care centers, low birth weight and weight-for -age, lack of breast-feeding and of non-milk supplements, and a histor y of previous pneumonia or wheezing. Day-care center attendance showed the highest risk, with an adjusted odds ratio of 11.75. Conclusions. In addition to continued efforts toward appropriate case management, a ctions directed against the above risk factors may help prevent the ma jor cause of deaths of children younger than 5 years.