Table 1.
Characteristics at admission of 735 hospitalized children.
Fig 1.
The parent trial was the Solar Oxygen Study (N = 2405) [8], which enrolled children under 5 years of age hospitalized with oxygen saturation (SpO2) < 92%. Malaria-negative patients with SpO2 < 90% who received supplemental oxygen and who completed the questionnaire for household air pollution (HAP) were included in the current secondary analysis (N = 735). The outcome was disease severity, measured using the composite clinical score, Signs of Inflammation in Children that Kill (SICK), and assessed by the treating clinician. The exposure was household air pollution, quantified using a HAP score [9], and assessed retrospectively by parental report of household and cooking fuel characteristics.
Table 2.
Exposure to household air pollution among 735 children hospitalized with hypoxemic pneumonia.
Fig 2.
Association between parental report of chronic respiratory tract symptoms and estimated household air pollution (PM2.5).
A. Red eyes; B. wheeze; C. difficulty breathing; and D. runny nose.
Fig 3.
Association between disease severity and estimated daily average personal household air pollution exposure (PM2.5).
A. There was a statistically significant correlation between the PM2.5 and composite severity score (Signs of Inflammation in Children that Kill, SICK, Kendall’s tau-B, τ = 0.15, p < 0.0001). B. Higher SICK score was associated with mortality. C. Higher PM2.5 was seen in children with WHO danger signs. D-F. The peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO2) was lower (D), the duration of oxygen therapy was longer (E), and the total volume of oxygen administered was higher (F) in patients exposed to higher levels of household air pollution.
Table 3.
Association between household air pollution (HAP) and childhood pneumonia in previous studies.