Serum albumin level as predictor of infection in children with nephrotic syndrome age 2- 18years in northwest and East Amhara region, Ethiopia: a multi-center cross-sectional retrospective study

Background Infection is the most common complication of pediatric patients with nephrotic syndrome. The factors associated with infection in nephrotic syndrome are lacking in the setting where this research was done. This study aimed to identify the prevalence and associated factors among children with nephrotic syndrome aged 2 to 18 years. Methods A hospital based retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted. An Epi5 collector electronic data collector installed with a smartphone was used to collect the data. The collected data was exported to Stata version 15.1 for analysis. Descriptive findings like mean, standard deviation and percentage were reported. Logistic regression was used to identify the factors associated with infection. Results In this study, the prevalence of infection among nephrotic syndrome children is 39.8% (95%CI: 30.7, 49.7). The types of infection identified were pneumonia, urinary tract infection, diarrheal disease, cutaneous fungal infection, intestinal parasitic infection, and sepsis. Serum albumin level, hematuria, and residence were significantly associated with infection. Conclusions The presence of hematuria predicted the presence of infection in nephrotic syndrome in children. Increasing the level of serum albumin decreased the likelihood of infection in children with nephrotic syndrome. Further study is recommended to strengthen this finding.