Serious illness in 204 New Zealand families during a 16 year period

Mothers of 204 senior school pupils completed a questionnaire about serious illness in nuclear family members during the lifetime of each adolescent. The information provided was sufficiently detailed to estimate incidence of various types of illness, to categorise illness by degree of seriousness and to compare illness histories between families. Gynaecological conditions in mothers and accidents and infectious diseases in children were the most common serious illness; asthma was reported in 7% of the individuals (27% of families). There had been 17 deaths, 31 life threatening illnesses, 108 major illnesses (defined as at least one week in hospital for a medical condition or for major surgery), 150 serious but non-major illnesses and 84 episodes of minor surgery. Six percent of families reported 36% of the medically serious illnesses.