Patterns of paediatric emergency admissions and predictors of prolonged hospital stay at the children emergency room, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar, Nigeria

Background: There is a high prevalence of paediatric emergency cases in less developed countries. However, prolonged hospital stay at emergency units may further overstretch the facilities. Objective: To assess the patterns of presentations, services offered and predictors of a prolonged stay at the Children Emergency Room of a tertiary hospital in Southern Nigeria. Methods: This prospective cross-sectional, study was conducted at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Nigeria from 1 st January–31 st December 2014. Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of consecutively recruited children (n=633) were recorded in a proforma. Binary logistic regression was conducted to determine predictors of prolonged stay (>72 hours) Result: The median age of participants was 2 (1 - 4.6) years. Three-fifths of children were admitted at off-hours and the commonest symptom was fever (73.9%). About 16.4% (95%CI:13.6% - 19.4%, n= 103/633) of the children had prolonged stay while those with sepsis had the longest mean stay (65.5±72.1 hours). Children admitted on account of Sickle cell disease (OR:11.2, 95%CI:1.3-95.1, P-value = 0.03), Malaria (OR:10.7, 95%CI:1.4-82.5, P-value = 0.02) or sepsis (OR:10.5, 95%CI:1.3 - 82.7, P-value = 0.03) had higher odds of prolonged hospital stay. There was no significant difference in hospital stay among children admitted by the consultant as compared to other health personnel (P-value = 0.08). Conclusion: Prevention and proper management of Sickle cell disease and malaria reduces paediatric hospital stay in our environment. Paediatric emergency medicine should be re-organized to cater for high volume of off-hour admissions. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ahs.v19i2.14 Cite as: Enyuma COA, Anah MU, Pousson A, Olorunfemi G, Ibisomi L, Abang BE, Imoke EJ. Patterns of paediatric emergency admissions and predictors of prolonged hospital stay at the Children Emergency Room, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar, Nigeria. Afri Health Sci.2019;19(2): 1910-1923. https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ahs.v19i2.1