Characteristics and factors associated with hospitalization in early childhood: 2004 Pelotas (Brazil) birth cohort.

Hospitalization is a frequent event in early childhood. In Brazil, the National Household Sample Survey of 2008 showed a 9% hospitalization rate among children in the first four years of life. The study aimed to describe the characteristics of hospitalization in the first six years of life and analyze the early factors associated with hospitalization in a birth cohort in southern Brazil. A zero-inflated Poisson model was used to simultaneously examine the effects of co-variables for the occurrence of a given event and to count events. The frequency of at least one episode of hospitalization during the study period was 33.4% (95%CI: 31.8-34.9), and was highest in the first year (19.1%; 95%CI: 17.9-20.4), remaining stable at approximately 10% between the first and fourth years, decreasing to 8.4% (95%CI: 7.6-9.4) between the fourth and sixth years. diseases of the respiratory system were among the leading causes of hospitalization, followed by infectious and parasitic diseases. History of prior hospitalization was one of the most important predictors of odds of hospitalization and risk of multiple hospitalizations. In early childhood, birth weight, gestational age, Apgar score, sex, and type of pregnancy were inversely associated with hospitalization, and environmental characteristics such as maternal smoking in pregnancy, mother's skin color, and low family income were associated statistically with number of hospitalizations. The results point to the importance of focusing efforts on reducing hospitalizations from diseases of the respiratory system, especially in children under one year.