Risk factors of paediatric community-acquired pneumonia.

The article by TEEPE et al. [1] recently published in the European Respiratory Journal is an interesting paper on the risk factors of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in children and adults in a primary-care setting. The study population consisted of 156 young adults and 107 children (aged ,15 yrs) suffering from CAP, and three controls were selected for each case from the same age group. The criteria for the diagnosis of CAP were either a radiological confirmation or the presence of at least three out of six defined respiratory signs/symptoms. Focusing on the paediatric age only, the multivariate analysis showed that lower age (OR 0.88), asthma (OR 3.57) and previous upper respiratory tract infections (OR 1.80 for one to two episodes and 2.46 for more than three episodes) were independently associated with CAP in children. Several aspects of the study by TEEPE et al. [1] should be underlined.