Modelling time to death of under-five pneumonia patients in tercha general hospital, dawro zone, south west Ethiopia

Pneumonia is number one largest infectious cause of death in children worldwide, kills about 2,500 children every day. It is most prevalent in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In Ethiopia pneumonia is a leading single disease killing under-five children. The aim of this study was to examine the risk factors of time to death of under-five pneumonia patients in Tercha General Hospital. Retrospective study was conducted by taking 281 under-five pneumonia patients. The Nonparametric method, semiparametric or Cox PH model and parametric survival models were used to examine the survival rate of under-five pneumonia patients. The results of this study revealed that out of 281 participants in the study 16.73% were died and 83.27% were alive at the end of the study. Based on AIC value the Weibull model is selected as the good model to fit pneumonia dataset compared to candidate models. The findings of this study implied that Sex, residence, Season of Diagnosis, Comorbidity, Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), Patient refer status and Patient to Nurse ratio (PNR) were major factors related to survival time of under-five pneumonia patients. The patients from urban and patients admitted to hospital when patient nurse ratio (PNR) was small were prolong timing death of under-five pneumonia patients, while Spring and summer season, comorbidity and Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) were shorten timing of death of under-five pneumonia patients. The concerned body should work on the identified factors to decrease the death of under-five pneumoniapatients.