title: Determinants of mortality in Nigerian children with severe anaemia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Severe anaemia (haemoglobin concentration less than 50 g/l) is a major cause of paediatric hospital admissions and deaths in the tropics.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To examine the pattern and predictors of mortality among severely anaemic children.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted among children with severe anaemia at the Children's Emergency Room of the University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. Socio-demographic characteristics, clinical features, laboratory findings and co-morbidities of the survivors and those who died were compared by logistic regression analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 1 735 children admitted, 311 (17.9%) had severe anaemia, with a case - fatality rate of 9.3%. The presence of respiratory distress (95% confidence interval (CI) 2.1 - 3.6, p=0.031); acidosis (95% CI 1.8 - 2.7, p=0.010); coma (95% CI 0.1 - 0.3, p=0.001); hypotension (95% CI 2.0 - 4.2, p=0.020); and bacteraemia (95% CI 3.1 - 3.9; p=0.008) were the significant independent predictors of death with regression analysis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Early recognition with prompt and appropriate anticipatory intervention is essential to reduce mortality from severe anaemia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. adegoke2samade@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Adegoke
authors.forename: Adenike
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ayansanwo
authors.forename: Isaac
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Oluwayemi
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Okeniyi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000740:Anemia / Q000401:mortality*; D016470:Bacteremia / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003404:Creatinine / Q000097:blood; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006400:Hematocrit; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009549:Nigeria / Q000453:epidemiology; D011446:Prospective Studies
chemical_list: D003404:Creatinine