Disease burden and health-care clinic attendances for young children in remote Aboriginal communities of northern Australia.
OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency of presentations and infectious-disease burden at primary health care (PHC) services in young children in two remote Aboriginal communities in tropical northern Australia. METHODS: Children born after 1 January 2001, who were resident at 30 September 2005 and fo...
| Publicado en: | Bulletin of the World Health Organization Vol. 86; no. 4; pp. 275 - 282 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , |
| Formato: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
World Health Organization
Apr2008
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=105750071&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 105750071 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 00429686 BUW jtl: Bulletin of the World Health Organization issn: 00429686 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Apr2008 vid: 86 iid: 4 pid: 437 pub: World Health Organization artinfo: ui: 105750071 105750071 2009909339 NLM18438516 105750071 ppf: 275 ppct: 7 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P tig: atl: Disease burden and health-care clinic attendances for young children in remote Aboriginal communities of northern Australia. aug: au: Clucas DB Carville KS Connors C Currie BJ Carapetis JR Andrews RM affil: Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Vic., Australia sug: subj: Aboriginal Australians Communicable Diseases Epidemiology Health Services Accessibility Trends Primary Health Care Trends Australia Child, Preschool Confidence Intervals Data Analysis Software Data Analysis, Statistical Descriptive Statistics Female Funding Source Infant Male Record Review Relative Risk Respiratory Tract Infections Epidemiology Retrospective Design Scabies Epidemiology Human Child, Preschool: 2-5 years Infant: 1-23 months Female Male ab: OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency of presentations and infectious-disease burden at primary health care (PHC) services in young children in two remote Aboriginal communities in tropical northern Australia. METHODS: Children born after 1 January 2001, who were resident at 30 September 2005 and for whom consent was obtained, were studied. Clinic records were reviewed for all presentations between 1 January 2002 and 30 September 2005. Data collected included reason for presentation (if infectious), antibiotic prescription and referral to hospital. FINDINGS: There were 7273 clinic presentations for 174 children aged 0-4.75 years, 55% of whom were male. The median presentation rate per child per year was 16 (23 in the first year of life). Upper-respiratory-tract infections (32%) and skin infections (18%) were the most common infectious reasons for presentation. First presentations for scabies and skin sores peaked at the age of 2 months. By 1 year of age, 63% and 69% of children had presented with scabies and skin sores, respectively. CONCLUSION: These Aboriginal children average about two visits per month to PHC centres during their first year of life. This high rate is testament to the disease burden, the willingness of Aboriginal people to use health services and the high workload experienced by these health services. Scabies and skin sores remain significant health problems, with this study describing a previously undocumented burden of these conditions commencing within the first few months of life. Appropriate prevention and treatment strategies should encompass early infancy to reduce the high burden of infectious diseases in this population. Copyright © 2008 World Health Organization pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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