Prevalence and risk factors of recurrent respiratory tract infections in preschool children: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Authors

Haizhu Huang, Xiaozhan Chen, Yi Wang, Dongxu Wang, Chuanlin Zhou

Published in

Jornal de pediatria. Pages 101598. Aug 14, 2026. Epub Aug 14, 2026.

Abstract

To evaluate the prevalence and risk factors for recurrent respiratory tract infections in preschool children.
Studies on RRTIs in preschool children were retrieved from PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, Web of Science, CBM, CNKI, Wanfang, and VIP databases up to October 2025. Data was analyzed using Stata 15.0.
Ten studies involving 15,271 preschoolers were included. Meta-analysis showed that the overall prevalence was 24.14% [95% CI (0.23,0.33)].A total of 11 risk factors for RRTIs in preschool children were identified, including: asthma I² = 93.8%) [OR = 3.84, 95% CI (1.97, 7.47), P < 0.001], allergy(I² = 0) [OR = 2.27, 95% CI (2.06, 2.51), P < 0.001], dietary bias I² = 65%) [OR = 2.10, 95% CI (1.37, 3.24), P = 0.001], smoking co-resident(I² = 42.7%) [OR = 1.83, 95% CI (1.44, 2.32), P < 0.001], low parental education level(I² = 0) [OR = 3.17, 95% CI (1.76, 5.69), P < 0.001], initial use of antibiotics < 6 months(I² = 0) [OR = 1.70, 95% CI (1.50, 1.93), P < 0.001], maternal BMI per 3 kg/m² increment(I² = 0) [OR = 1.18, 95% CI (1.08, 1.28), P < 0.001], and breastfeeding duration < 6 months(I² = 0) [OR = 1.26, 95% CI (1.12, 1.42), P < 0.001].
The high prevalence (24.14%) of RRTIs in preschool children and the risk factors identified provide evidence for targeted prevention and intervention strategies.

PMID:
42601025
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 15 Aug 2026.

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