Hailemariam Abiy, Zelalem Shiferaw, Yilkal Tafere
Background: Meningitis remains a major cause of mortality and morbidity in patients in many countries of the world including Ethiopia. This study aimed to assess clinical outcomes and associated factors with meningitis outcome among children who were admitted to Debre Markos Comprehensive Specialized Hospital from January 1, 2017 to December 30, 2018.
Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted. The study includes All pediatric meningitis 211 cases from the age of one month to fourteen who were admitted due to meningitis in Debre Markos Comprehensive Specialized Hospital. Data were entered, cleaned, and analyzed using SPSS for Windows, version 20. A backward stepwise multivariable logistic regression was applied with 95% confidence interval of odds ratio (OR) and statistical significance less than 0.05 p-value were taken as cut off value. Results: The study showed that 18.9% of children with meningitis developed bad outcomes. In this study, children who were a worse clinical condition at admission 6 times more likely to develop bad outcomes [AOR= 6.321(2.121, 18.837)] and having a seizure at admission almost 19 times more likely to develop bad outcomes [AOR=18.953(6.677, 53.799)].
Conclusions: About one in five children with meningitis developed bad outcomes. The health care team should due attention to improving care for patients with severe conditions at admission and with seizures management to control those factors for poor outcomes in children.