title: Predicting factors of plural hospitalization with pneumonia in low-birthweight infants.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Children with a history of low birthweight (LBW) are often hospitalized with plural episodes of pneumonia after discharge from the neonatal intensive care unit. The aim of this study was to clarify the multiple factors predisposing them to developing three or more hospitalizations with pneumonia and whether the factors are related to their own prematurity. We also aimed to determine a predictable numerical formula for three or more episodes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fourteen patients with two hospitalizations with pneumonia were grouped into group A. Fourteen patients with at least three episodes during the same investigation period were grouped into group B. The quantification theory type III was employed to investigate the similarities among the items and the gravity of each attribution in the two groups. To evaluate the items of discrimination of both groups, six items were analyzed by the quantification theory type II.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The dominant order of items contributing to the grouping was as follows: methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus detection (partial correlation coefficient = 0.5284), asthmatic attack (partial correlation coefficient = 0.4138), severe motor and intellectual disability, Haemophilus influenzae, accompanying diseases and chronic lung disease. A predicting numerical formula was attained from these results. The success rate of discrimination was 85.7%. The six items seemed to be related to the patients' own prematurity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The authors emphasize that plural hospitalizations with pneumonia in the patients with LBW might be caused by the combined influence of six clinical factors as well as their own prematurity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Japanese Red Cross Nagaoka Hospital, Nagaoka, Niigata, Japan. torigoe@mynet.ne.jp
authors.forename: Katsumi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Torigoe
authors.forename: Sunao
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sasaki
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hoshina
authors.forename: Tsukasa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Torigoe
authors.forename: Moemi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hojo
authors.forename: Shigehito
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Emura
authors.forename: Kinuko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kojima
authors.forename: Junya
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Onozuka
authors.forename: Masatsugu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Isobe
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Numata
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D007235:Infant, Premature, Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D010359:Patient Readmission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012008:Recurrence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors