Abstract:

Objective: To analyze the risk factors of recurrent respiratory tract infections (RRI) in children. Methods: This study collected demographic characteristics, previous history and disease-related data of 2194 children with respiratory tract infections hospitalized from June to October 2018 in Childrens Hospital of Hebei Province. Among the 2194 children with respiratory tract infection, the children diagnosed with RRI were taken as the observation group (275 cases), and the other children who occasionally or did not meet the definition and diagnostic criteria of recurrent infection were taken as the control group (1919 cases). The epidemiological characteristics of RRIs in children were analyzed, and their risk factors were analyzed with binary and multivariable logistic regression. Results: Within 2194 child patients with respiratory tract infections, 535 cases (24.4%) were detected with respiratory pathogens, including 166 (7.6%) respiratory syncytial virus cases, 124 (5.7%) influenza virus A cases, 98 (4.5%) parainfluenza cases, 78 (3.6%) influenza virus B cases, 42 (1.9%) adenovirus cases and 27 (1.2%) mycoplasma cases. Multivariable logistic regression showed that taking day care service (OR=4.181, 95%CI:3.529-6.040), passive tobacco exposure (OR=5.027, 95%CI:4.393-9.308), humid at home (OR=2.004, 95%CI:1.333-4.207), sharing a bedroom with other children aged 0-5 (OR=1.916, 95%CI:1.249-2.404), history of allergies (OR=3.165, 95%CI:2.359-4.421) were risk factors of RRI in children. Conclusion: Taking daycare service and sharing bedroom increased spatial aggregation thus increased the risk of RRIs. Passive tobacco exposure, humid living environment and history of allergies all increased the risk of pathogen colonization and infection by damaging the defense mechanism of the respiratory tract.

Key words: Respiratory tract infection, Risk factors, Regression analysis