[Morbidity among kibbutz children determined by health interview]

Morbidity in 1,565 children up to the age of 6 years on 28 kibbutzim over a period of 6 days was examined. The data reported in a health interview were compared with those reported to the kibbutz clinics. The health interview gave a morbidity of 38% during the 6 days studied, equivalent to a mean of 23.1 episodes per child per year. Of these sick children, 300 were reported as having visited the clinic, compared with 240 actually recorded as having symptoms/complaints, or 9.3 events per child per year. Nearly all of the morbidity (95%) fell into 4 major categories: respiratory, nervous system and sensory infections and digestive diseases. As reported in the health interview, the clinic was visited in 50% of the episodes; the frequency and types of diseases reported were similar for both the clinic records and the health interviews. The most clinic visits were for acute infectious diseases (100%); the least for chronic diseases (none). According to the health interview, 62% of those visiting the clinic were referred to a physician and 38% to a nurse. The corresponding percentages from the clinic records were 60 and 40, respectively. In general, the relative distribution by disease categories was similar in both health interviews and clinic records. The only significant differences were for respiratory diseases, in which a higher incidence was reported in the health interview. In the matching test between health interviews and records of clinic visits, only partial matching was found. There was 34% corroboration of dates of visit according to the health interview compared with the clinic records. With regard to diagnoses, the rate of match was only 29%.