Record keeping on early childhood diseases in two decades, at the health centre level in Uganda. Biritwum RB.

Abstract

This study provides the age specific prevalence rates of diseases using data from 1152 infants by reviewing clinic records, which have been maintained from 1963 till 1984 (grouped according to households) at Kasangati Health Centre near Kampala, Uganda. On the average, each child reported 3 disease episodes per year. The conditions that brought a child to clinic for the first time were: respiratory infection 46.2%; clinical malaria 14.4%; skin infections 9.8%; diarrhoeal diseases 8.5% and, others 21.1%. The prevalence of diseases in infants at the age of less than one month old were, respiratory tract infection 78/1000, skin conditions 29/1000, clinical malaria/fever 18/1000, eye infection 15/1000, diarrhoea 5/1000 and others 67/1000. At the age of one month till the age of 18 months, four conditions consistently topped the disease prevalence list: respiratory tract infection with a range of 175/1000 to 29/1000, being higher in early childhood; clinical malaria/fever with a range of 79/1000 to 23/1000; diarrhoeal diseases with a range of 55/1000 to 10/1000 and skin conditions with a range of 42/1000 to 10/1000. Other disease conditions including urinary tract infection, burns/accidents, eye infections, ear infections, measles and tetanus had age specific prevalence of less than 10/1000 at each age. Most of the diseases showed decreasing level of prevalence as the age increased. Relatively more people used the clinic and at a higher rate in the 1970s compared to the 1960s, mirroring the general economic and political situation of the two periods. There were no sex specific differences in either the frequency of utilization of the clinic or in the prevalence of disease over time.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)