clinical manifestations of pediatric pneumonia aged 3 months to 12 years; evaluation of effect of vitamin a

Background: the effect of vitamin a on clinical manifestations of pediatric pneumonia was evaluated.method: in this randomized double-blinded clinical trial, ninety children between 3 months and 12 years of age with pneumonia admitted to qaem and dr. sheikh hospital children’s ward were assessed. they were randomly divided into two groups: one receiving vitamin a (or retinol) and the other receiving a placebo. clinical features such as tachypnea, fever, cough, rales, wheezing, and intercostal retraction were recorded and compared between the groups every 12 hours for 120 hours. the significance level was set at less than 0.05.results: of the participants, 42 patients (46.7%) were female and 48 (53.3%) were male. the mean age of all children was 18.37±9.23 months. there were no significant differences between the groups in terms of age and sex (p-values > 0.05). in the group receiving vitamin a, fever was significantly reduced after 60 hours, (p-values < 0.05) and cough was significantly reduced at 24 hours (p-value: 0.025) and 36 hours (p-value: 0.049). however, vitamin a had no effects on other clinical manifestations of pediatric pneumonia (all p-values > 0.05). conclusion: the prescription of vitamin a was effective in reducing fever and cough in pediatric pneumonia.