Abstract:
An estimated 3.9 million deaths of young children occur globally due to the Acute Respiratory
Infections (ARI) which is preventable by using low-cost interventions such as hand washing, breastfeeding,
and accessibility of rapid and attainable methods of early diagnosis. A cross-sectional study was
conducted in selected hospitals of Mogadishu City in Somalia. A sample size of 140 respondents was
used. Random sampling technique was applied for the selection of the study sample. Semi-structured
questionnaire has been used as a tool for data collection. The majority of the respondents were aged
between 15-45 years. The maximum number of the respondents were housewives with a family income of
100-300 USD. Most children were born with a normal birth weight more than or equal to 2500 grams.
More than half of the participants, 88(62.85%), 30(21.42%), responded that their children were born
with a low birth weight less than 2500 grams, and 22(15.71%) of the respondents were not sure about
their childbirth weight. The prevalence of ARI is often associated with many socio-economic status and
household environmental factors such as overcrowding, unemployment rates, and educational and
housing quality, among other factors which increase the risk of ARI and should therefore be included in
the strategies to reduce ARI incidence.
