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Assessing morbidity in the paediatric community.
M M Escuder1, N N da Silva, J C Pereira
1Instituto de Saúde, Secretaria da Saúde, São Paulo, SP, Brasil. mescuder@isaude.sp.gov.br
Revista De Saude Publica
|November 5, 1999
Summary
Demand morbidity, from medical records, can reliably estimate community disease prevalence when health service coverage is good, especially for infants. This helps assess disease occurrence in areas lacking community surveys.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Epidemiology
- Health Services Research
Background:
- Medical records provide accessible morbidity data but are limited to serviced populations.
- Community surveys are ideal for disease prevalence but often infeasible.
- Demand morbidity (from health services) and perceived morbidity (from surveys) offer alternative disease occurrence assessments.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between demand morbidity and perceived morbidity.
- To determine if demand morbidity can serve as a proxy for community morbidity when surveys are not possible.
Main Methods:
- A household survey and analysis of data from two basic health units were conducted in a community of 13,365 families near S. Paulo, Brazil.
- Data focused on children under 5 years old.
- Prevalence of diseases from perceived morbidity was compared with estimates derived from demand morbidity.
Main Results:
- Respiratory diseases, diarrhea, skin problems, and infectious/parasitic diseases were most common.
- Health units had better coverage for infants, with improved detection of diarrhea and infectious diseases.
- Equivalence between demand and perceived morbidity was limited to infants and well-covered diseases, requiring at least 4:10 service contact.
Conclusions:
- Demand morbidity can be a reliable indicator of community morbidity.
- This estimation is valid when health service coverage is adequate.
- The findings support using health service data in lieu of community surveys under specific conditions.