Modified systemic inflammatory response syndrome and provider gestalt predicting adverse outcomes in children under 5 years presenting to an urban emergency department of a tertiary hospital in Tanzania

Table 1 Baseline demographic characteristics of the study population

	All (N = 1350)	Classifiable by mSIRS (n = 1030)	Not classifiable by mSIRS (n = 320)	p value
Age, months
Median (interquartile range)	17 (8–32)	15 (7–28)	24 (9–41)	< 0.0001
Gender
Male, no. (%)	784 (58.07%)	599 (58.16%)	185 (57.81%)	0.91**
Female, no. (%)	566 (41.93%)	431 (41.84%)	135 (42.19%)
Findings at presentation
SBP (mmHg)
Median	102	101	102	0.95*
Interquartile range	92–111	93–110	91–111
Hypotension, no. (%)^†	67 (4.96%)	54 (5.24%)	13 (4.06%)	0.40**
Pulse rate
Median	138	142	127	< 0.0001*
Interquartile range	120–156	123–158	113–143
Tachycardia, no. (%)^‡	231 (17.11%)	212 (20.58%)	19 (5.94%)	< 0.0001**
Bradycardia, no. (%)^∫	26 (1.93%)	20 (1.94%)	6 (1.88%)	0.94**
Respiratory rate
Median	32	32	32	0.48*
Interquartile range	26–35	26–34	28–36
Abnormal temperature, no. (%)^ǁ	232 (17.19%)	139 (13.50%)	32 (10%)	0.10**
Oxygen saturation < 95%, no. (%)	98 (7.26%)	89 (8.64%)	9 (2.81%)	0.0004**
Level of responsiveness				< 0.0001**
Alert, no. (%)*	1274 (94.37%)	956 (92.82%)	318 (99.38%)
Voice, no. (%)**	12 (0.89%)	12 (1.16%)	0
Pain, no. (%)^⁑	47 (3.48%)	46 (4.47%)	1 (0.31%)
Unresponsive, no. (%)§	17 (1.26%)	16 (1.55%)	1 (0.31%)

^aHypotension was defined as systolic blood pressure of less than 75 mmHg in children aged 1 month to more than 5 years and less than 74 mmHg in children aged 2 to 5 years
^‡Tachycardia was a heart rate of more than 180 beats per minute in children aged 1 month to less than 2 years and more than 140 bpm in children aged 2 to 5 years
^∫Bradycardia was defined as less than 90 bpm in children aged 1 month to less than 2 years, and it was not applicable to children aged 2 to 5 years
^ǁTemperate was defined as measuring at the axilla, either less than 35.4 °C or more than 37.9 °C
*Alertness in a child was defined as the child being active
**Responding to voice was defined as the child responded when called his/her name by the parent/guardian in children aged less than 1 year and child responding by making sound or words in children aged more than 1 year
^⁑Painful stimulus in a child was defined as when the child was touched or inflicted pain, cried, or grimaced
^§Unresponsiveness was defined as the child not responding to any external stimulus

ISSN: 1349-4147