Research Article

Demographic, Clinical Profiles and Therapeutic Outcomes of Aerosol Therapy in Children

Abstract

Background: Respiratory illness remains one of the leading causes of hospitalization in children. Administration of drugs in the form of aerosol plays an important role in the treatment of respiratory illnesses. Hence, it is essential to understand the use of these aerosols in the clinical setting and to improve the efficacy with optimal utilization of drugs.
Methodology: This study is a cross-sectional study. The study period was between January 2019 and December 2021. The patient inclusion criteria were the subjects treated with aerosol and the age group of 1 day to 12 years. Data were collected from 264 subjects. The data collection includes variables like demography, clinical presentation, therapeutic management and condition at discharge. The collected data were analysed with descriptive and one-way ANOVA tests were used to find the statistical significance.
Result: In this study, children aged between 1 day and 1 year (59.46%) were predominantly under aerosol therapy for respiratory illnesses. Crepitation was observed in 56.8% of the paediatric population and 40.1% of the population was diagnosed with bronchiolitis. Hypertonic saline was administered to 67.42% of the population in the form of an aerosol. The condition of every patient significantly improved at the time of discharge after aerosols administration.
Conclusion: Aerosol therapy has been used in management of most of the paediatric respiratory illnesses, which has improved the therapeutic outcomes. Challenging part is the administration, use and cost of the therapy. It has the benefit of achieving the goals of therapy with improved quality of life.