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Counting respiratory rate in infants under 2 months: comparison between observation and auscultation

Sunit Singhi1, A K Bhalla, Ashok Bhandari

  • 1Department of Pediatrics, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India. drsinghi@glide.net.in

Annals of Tropical Paediatrics
|June 14, 2003
PubMed

Insights

Observing chest movements is as reliable as listening for respiratory rate (RR) in infants. This finding supports the World Health Organization

Area of Science:

  • Pediatrics
  • Public Health
  • Respiratory Medicine

Background:

  • The World Health Organization (WHO) utilizes respiratory rate (RR) counting via observation for diagnosing pneumonia in acute respiratory infections.
  • Reliability studies comparing observational RR counting with other methods are limited.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the reliability of the observational method for counting respiratory rate (RR) in healthy infants.
  • To compare RR measurements obtained by observation versus auscultation.

Main Methods:

  • Simultaneous RR counting by observation and auscultation in 100 healthy infants.
  • Measurements were taken at 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks of age.
  • RR was counted for durations of 15, 30, and 60 seconds.

Main Results:

  • Coefficients of variation for RR were similar between observational and auscultatory methods across all age groups.
  • Mean RR by observation was slightly higher (1-3 breaths/min) than by auscultation (p < 0.001).
  • The 95% confidence interval for the difference between methods ranged from +5 to -8 breaths/min when counted for 60 seconds.

Conclusions:

  • Observational counting of respiratory rate is as reliable as auscultation in healthy infants.
  • This supports the continued use of the observational method in global acute respiratory infection control programs.

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