Child care and infectious respiratory disease during the first two years of life in a rural Kenyan community.
Recent research in the U.S. has demonstrated the health risks accompanying the increase in use of day care centers for infants and young children, a trend that reflects large-scale social and economic changes. The present study reports increased risk of respiratory disease in rural Kenyan children, resulting from increased exposure to unrelated young children. The shift in risk patterns accompanies sociocultural and economic trends during the 1970s: maternal participation in work groups for cash cropping and increased school attendance by other family members. Thus as in the American case, participation in modern patterns of household economics significantly influences the pattern of illness for infants and young children.
Super
C M
CM
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, College of Health and Human Development, Pennsylvania State University, University Park 16802.
Keefer
C H
CH
Harkness
S
S
D002654:Child Care; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007630:Kenya / Q000453:epidemiology; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012424:Rural Population; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors