The Relationship between Pneumonia with Parental Smoking in Children under 10 Years Old: A Case- Control Study

Background Recognition of risk factors for childhood pneumonia as the main cause of mortality and morbidity is essential. We aimed to determine the relationship of pneumonia with parental smoking in hospitalized children under 10 years old in Qom city, Iran. Materials and Methods This case-control study was performed among 240 children under 10 years old in Ayatollah Golpayegani hospital in Qom city, Iran. Patients were recruited by convenience sampling; 120 patients with pneumonia as the case group, and 120 patients without pneumonia as the control group were enrolled. Parents were asked about duration of exposure to cigarette smoking, the number of cigarettes smoked per day by parents, the frequency of the smokers in family of children, parental education, age of exposure to cigarette smoking, location of smoking, frequency of hospitalization, and duration of hospitalization. The parental smoking was assessed and compared across two groups. The data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 13.0). Results The mean age in case group was 29.1±30.3 months and in control group was 32.9±31.1 months. In this study it was seen that lower age of smoking exposure was related to pneumonia. In fact significant difference was found between the groups for age of exposure to cigarette smoking (p=0.001), and location of smoking (p=0.048), but the other variables such as duration of hospitalization (day), hemoglobin level, frequency of the smokers in family of children and parental education had no association (P > 0.05). Conclusion Based on the results of this study and comparing with similar studies conducted in this field, it can be concluded that pneumonia is related to parental smoking especially in younger ages.