The Lancet Respiratory Medicine: Risk and accuracy of outpatient-identified hypoxaemia for death among suspected child pneumonia cases in rural Bangladesh
Team member Carina King with colleagues’ have an article published in this month’s issue of The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. The paper that is also featured on the cover, is about a multifacility, prospective, observational study conducted in rural Bangladesh to evaluate the potential effect of pulse oximetry implementation on the WHO IMCI-based outpatient care of 3848 young children with suspected pneumonia.
Hypoxaemic pneumonia mortality risk in low- and middle-income countries is high in children who have been hospitalised, but unknown among outpatient children. The paper aimed to determine the burden of outpatients, mortality risk, and prognostic accuracy of death from hypoxaemia in children with suspected pneumonia in Bangladesh.
The authors conducted a study in rural Bangladesh to evaluate the potential effect of pulse oximetry implementation on the WHO Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) guidelines on outpatient care children with suspected pneumonia.
Findings support pulse oximeter use during the outpatient care of young children with suspected pneumonia in Bangladesh as well as the re-evaluation of the WHO IMCI currently recommended threshold of an oxygen saturation less than 90% for hospital referral.