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[What would happen if day care centers closed?]
J Montiano Jorge1, I Ocio Ocio, I Díez López
1Servicio de Pediatría, Hospital Txagorritxu, Vitoria, España.
Insights
A daycare center strike in Vitoria, Spain, led to a significant decrease in emergency room visits for children under three years old. This suggests daycares increase exposure to common childhood illnesses, highlighting the need for enhanced hygiene measures.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine
- Epidemiology
- Public Health
Background:
- Day care centers are known settings for the transmission of infectious diseases among young children.
- Previous studies have indicated a higher incidence of common illnesses in children attending day care compared to those cared for at home.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between a day care center strike and emergency episodes in young children.
- To assess the impact of reduced day care attendance on pediatric emergency service utilization.
Main Methods:
- A retrospective observational study was conducted in Vitoria, Spain.
- Emergency episodes and hospital admissions for children under 14 were compared during a 2004 day care strike period (September-November) with the preceding five years.
- Statistical analysis involved a comparison of proportions with a significance level of p < 0.005.
Main Results:
- A significant decrease in emergency episodes was observed in children under three years old during October and November of the strike period (p < 0.01).
- No significant differences in emergency rates were found for children over three years old.
- Hospital admission rates remained unchanged across all age groups during the strike.
Conclusions:
- Children attending day care centers appear to have an elevated risk of contracting common, likely infectious, diseases.
- The findings underscore the role of day care settings in driving demand for pediatric emergency services.
- Recommendations include maximizing hygienic and sanitary measures within day care centers rather than closure.
Objective:
To determine the possible association between the decrease in emergency episodes and the strike in day care centers in Vitoria (Spain) in the autumn of 2004, which affected 86 % of children attending these centers.
Patients And Method:
We performed a retrospective observational study. In Vitoria, there were 27404 children under the age of 14 in 2004; of these, 5890 were under the age of 3 years. The day care centers on strike affected 25.4 % of the latter. We compared emergency episodes and hospital admissions during the strike (September to November, 2004) with those occurring in the previous 5 years. To contrast the hypothesis, a comparison of proportions was used with statistical significance set at p < 0.005.
Results:
A significant decrease (rate x 1000 inhabitants) was observed in the number of emergency episodes in children under 3 years old in two of the three months of the strike (October and November, p < 0.01). No significant differences were observed in emergency rates in children aged more than 3 years old, or in hospital admissions in all ages.
Conclusions:
These data suggest that children attending day care centers have a higher risk of catching banal diseases (which do not require hospital admission and are probably infectocontagious illnesses) than children not attending these centers, thus increasing demand for pediatric emergency services. Since the solution does not lie in closing day care centers, hygienic and sanitary measures should be maximized in these centers.
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