title: Burden of illness in the first 3 years of life in an Indian slum.
abstract: The morbidity and mortality in a cohort of 452 children followed up from birth up to 3 years of age, in an urban slum in India, is described. These children were recruited and followed from March 2002 to September 2006. A prospective morbidity survey was established. There were 1162 child-years of follow-up. The average morbidity rate was 11.26 episodes/child-year. Respiratory infections caused 58.3 and diarrheal disease 18.4% of the illnesses. Respiratory illnesses resulted in 48, 67.5 and 50 days of illnesses, and there were 3.6, 1.64 and 1.16 diarrheal episodes per child in the 3 years, respectively. There were five deaths in the cohort in the 3 years of follow-up. Of the 77 drop-outs 44 were contacted for mortality data. The morbidity in the area is high, comparable to other studies. The mortality is low, and is attributed to the facilitated access to care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health, Christian Medical College, Vellore 632002, India.
authors.forename: Beryl P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Gladstone
authors.forename: Ashima R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Das
authors.forename: Andrea M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Rehman
authors.forename: Shabbar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jaffar
authors.forename: Mary K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Estes
authors.forename: Jayaprakash
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Muliyil
authors.forename: Gagandeep
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Anuradha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bose
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D003968:Diarrhea, Infantile / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009017:Morbidity; D011204:Poverty Areas; D011446:Prospective Studies; D044469:Racial Groups; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014505:Urban Population