Health problems and care in young families--load of illness and patterns of illness behaviour

During a winter month 185 young suburban families reported in a diary on perceived health problems and measures taken in response to these problems. Information on socio-economical factors, medical experience and structure of the social network was obtained from a mailed questionnaire. As a mean every fourth individual-day a health problem was recorded. The majority (61%) of symptoms were infections and only 14% of illness days were classified as severe. On every sixth of all reported individual days measures were taken to handle health problems. Seven per cent of measures taken in response to a perceived health problem were taken in collaboration with the social network and in less than 1/10 of reported symptom days and 1/5 of reported illness episodes the professional medical system was contacted. For health problems in children 1/3 of the contacts were taken by telephone and often with the child welfare nurse. The demands for professional help was dependent on type and severity of symptoms, duration of illness episodes as well as on the category of family member. Within the family the health problems were preferentially handled by the mother and the dominating type of treatment was medication (73% of total activity). It is concluded that young families perceive and handle a huge amount of health problems without communication with the professional health care system.