Case fatality of Pneumonia: A ‘5’ year retrospective study

Context: Pneumonia is an infl ammatory condition of the lung affecting the alveoli with the infection of microorganisms. Aim: The present study aims to fi nd out the case fatality of pneumonia based on the variables such as age, sex and year. Study Design and Settings: It is a retrospective study of fi ve years conducted in medical college hospital at the Ernakulam district of Kerala State in India. Methods and Materials: The data were collected from the Medical Records department and analyzed by using Microsoft Excel. Statistical Analysis Used: ‘Z’ test was applied for fi nding out the difference in proportions. Result: Out of 5496 pneumonia cases, 3340 (60.77%) were males and 2156 (39.22%) were females. The proportion of males was higher than females. The proportion of pneumonia cases was higher in the low age group (0-5 years) than other age groups. Broncho-pneumonia (84.95%) was reported as the most dominant type of infection in the present study. Of 5496 cases, 79 deaths were reported with a case fatality rate of 1.43%. Case fatality rate among males (1.67%) was higher than females (1.06%) (P = 0.05). Case fatality rate of pneumonia in 0-5 years was 0.11% and 36.84% in 85 years and above. Case fatality of pneumonia increased from 0.55% in 2005 to 4.39% in 2010. Conclusion: The case infection of pneumonia is higher in low age groups due to associated risk factors while case fatality is higher in old age groups may be due to aging of organ systems and age-associated diseases.