الفهرس 
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Abstract
Acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs) are common in children. Many preschool children develop recurrent, severe episodes of respiratory tract illness. Rate of respiratory tract infections in this age group is significantly affected by socioeconomic environment of those children.
The present study is retrospective cohort study aimed to describe the demographic, clinical and therapeutic characteristics of preschool children with respiratory tract infections. It was conducted at Family Health Center (FHC) affiliated to Talkha Health district. The study included 250 children. Their health records were thoroughly revised to extract relevant data including medical history, clinical data and management details.
Patients included in the present study comprised 118 males (47.2 %) and 132 females (52.8 %). Their age ranged from >1-2y in 147 (58.8 %), >2-4y in 80 (32.0 %) and >4y in 23 children (9.2 %).
It was also found that 6 (2.4 %) of the studied children’ fathers were illiterate while 36 (14.4 %) could read and write, 201 (80.4 %) had basic education and 7 (2.8 %) had university education. Regarding mothers, the present study found that 14 (5.6 %) were illiterate, 46 (18.4 %) could read and write, 134 (53.6 %) had basic education and 56 (22.4 %) had university education.
In the current study, 32 children (12.8 %) had mild complaints while 188 (75.2 %) had moderate complaints and 30 children (12.0 %) had severe disease.
The most commonly reported diagnosis was acute tonsillitis in 64 children (25.6 %) followed by influenza in 41 children (16.4 %), acute upper RTI in 30 children (12.0 %) and acute laryngitis in 30 children (12.0 %).
In our study, antibiotics were administrated for 113 children (45.2 %) while 137 patients (54.8 %) had no antibiotics. In the present study, only 25 patients (10.0 %) were referred to a specialist service.
Perceived health education in the studied group was reported in 177 mothers (70.8 %). It was about drugs in 40 women (22.5 %) and hygiene in 137 women (77.5 %). Regarding the reported outcome in the present study, it was found that 94 patients (37.6 %) weren’t improved while 123 (49.2 %) improved ≤ 7 and 33 (13.2 %) improved > 7.
In respect to the relation between socio-demographic data and prognosis, it was found that older child age and better maternal education was significantly associated with better prognosis; a findings that was confirmed by logistic regression analysis. Moreover, our study found that improved patients had significantly higher frequency of perceived health education. The most commonly reported referred diagnosis in the present study was lower RTI in 18
cases (72.0 %) followed by acute tonsillitis in 4 patients (16.0 %) and acute upper RTI in 2 patients (8.0 %). In addition, we could detect that referred patients had significantly higher frequency of antibiotic prescription when compared with non-referred patients.