Development of the Respiratory Index of Severity in Children (RISC) score among young children with respiratory infections in South Africa.

OBJECTIVE: Pneumonia is a leading cause of death in children worldwide. A simple clinical score predicting the probability of death in a young child with lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) could aid clinicians in case management and provide a standardized severity measure during epidemiologic studies. METHODS: We analyzed 4,148 LRTI hospitalizations in children