Abstract

Discharge against medical advice (DAMA) is a serious concern because the patients leave medical facilities too soon and are suspected to suffer from probable adverse consequences. The aim of the study is to identify the reasons of discharge against medical advice in both infants and children. A prospective observational study was performed between January 2022 to June 2022 after obtaining parental consent and institutional ethical committee permission. All the patients between the age group of 1 month to 17 years who are discharged against medical advice were included in the study. Total of 373 cases were discharged during the study period among which 30 were DAMA cases. Data were analysed with IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 23.0. In this study, out of 373 Children discharged, 30 were discharged against medical advice. The most common reason was financial issue 36% and no health awareness regarding the disease course which was 20%. On comparing the reasons for DAMA with various demographic characteristics, effect of occupation on reason for DAMA was statistically significant with a p value of 0.038. This study concludes that financial issues and unawareness about the health issues were the most common reasons for DAMA though they were not statistically significant. Hence proper counselling and measures to help the patients to overcome the financial burden would reduce the rate of DAMA. Furthermore, studies are required to support the evidence and to decrease the rate of DAMA. Keywords: complications, discharge, neonatal health

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