title: Frequency of major pediatric illnesses hospitalized in Taiwan.
abstract: From January 1987 to December 1989, there were a total of 158,576 pediatric admissions to 24 major hospitals in Taiwan. The most common diseases leading to admission included respiratory tract disease (28.88%), neonatal illness (18.44%), gastrointestinal tract disease (14.20%) and common infectious diseases (8.45%). More than half (58.8%) of the children with respiratory tract disease had bronchopneumonia, and 80.8% of the children with gastrointestinal tract disease suffered from diarrhea. During the three-year study period, the average number of children under 14 years of age in Taiwan was 5,556,839. The frequency of each major illness per 1,000 children-years was thus 2.75 for respiratory tract disease, 1.75 for neonatal illness, 1.35 for gastrointestinal tract disease, 0.84 for common infectious disease, 0.49 for cardiovascular disease, 0.38 for neurological disorders, 0.27 for allergic diseases, 0.27 for hemato-oncologic disease, 0.14 for accidents, 0.13 for renal disease and 0.02 for metabolic disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Veterans General Hospital-Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hwang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007239:Infections / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology