The prevalence of chronic diseases in children in out-hospital care in Finland.
The records of public health nurses have been used for an estimate of the prevalence of children in domestic care and suffering from various kinds of chronic diseases. This estimate provided a basis for computation of the number of chronically ill children in out-hospital care in Finland. The research was carried out as a sample research and this inquiry resulted in the information of the anamnesis of 12,721 chronic children under 16 years of age taken care of at home. We have counted as chronics those children whose disease is lingering either due to its mechanism of origin or to its nature or known to be such from experience. The total prevalence was 53% of the child population in Finland which corresponds to 59,000 chronically sick children. The geographical distributions of the groups of the diseases were not quite alike in the different parts in our land. The greater prevalences were found on the other hand in Northern Finland and in the wide archipelago of Southwestern Finland. The most common types of the chronic diseases of children were found to be those of sense organs (the total prevalence was 18%). The prevalence of allergic diseases varies between 6--12% and the disease group of endocrinic glands 1.0--3.4%. The prevalence of the neurological diseases was 2.3% and the biggest group consists of the convulsive. The prevalence of the other groups of diseases were: the psychiatric diseases 2.2%, the urological diseases 1.4% and the hematological diseases 0.8%.
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000013:Congenital Abnormalities / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004700:Endocrine System Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D005387:Finland; D006402:Hematologic Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D006967:Hypersensitivity / Q000453:epidemiology; D007223:Infant; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital; D012677:Sensation; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology