Magnitude and pattern of improvement in processes of care for hospitalised children with diarrhoea and dehydration in Kenyan hospitals participating in a clinical network.

Objective: WHO recommends optimisation of available interventions to reduce deaths of under-five children with diarrhoea and dehydration (DD). Clinical networks may help improve practice across many hospitals but experience with such networks is scarce. We describe magnitude and patterns of changes in processes of care for children with DD over the first 3 years of a clinical network.

Inappropriate prescription of cough remedies among children hospitalised with respiratory illness over the period 2002-2015 in Kenya.

Objective: To examine trends in prescription of cough medicines over the period 2002-2015 in children aged 1 month to 12 years admitted to Kenyan hospitals with cough, difficulty breathing or diagnosed with a respiratory tract infection.

Methods: We reviewed hospitalisation records of children included in four studies providing cross-sectional prevalence estimates from government hospitals for six time periods between 2002 and 2015. Children with an atopic illness were excluded.