EPIDEMIOLOGY <<Back
 
 
032
REPORT ON THE FIRST AND SECOND PASSIVE FOLLOW-UPS OF CHILD POPULATION IN 0-14 YEARS AGE GROUP IN A SLUM AREA OF BANGALORE
S Dwarakanath, Sukant Singh and R Rajalakshmi: NTI Newsletter 1977, 14, 97-104.

The findings of the two follow-ups conducted passively, in a slum area of Bangalore city, each at an interval of one year, are presented here. The objectives of the follow-ups were to study the migration, episodes of sickness and health status of sick people of initial survey over a period of time in the pediatric age group. The information was collected by two ways: (1) by visiting each house to collect information on sickness among them during the preceding year as per the questionnaire. (2) Going through the records of the Area Health Centre about various morbidities among the residents of the area pertaining to symptoms, diagnosis and treatment during any year noted.

Migration had occurred upto 7% in 0-9 year age group within first year and no migration during second year in 0-4 year age group. Out of 400 children belonging to 0-14 years, had symptoms related to respiratory system. In all, 5 children were diagnosed as case of active primary tuberculosis, non-e died in two years and one had persistent respiratory symptoms. Hospital records showed that only 1 out of 5 had attended any health facility with respiratory symptoms. The usefulness of passive follow-up without clinical investigations as a tool, needs to be reviewed. Most of the symptomatics do not go to hospital. Diagnosis cannot be arrived at by passive follow-up. It may be necessary to decrease the interval of follow-ups if it is desired to get precise idea on frequency of episodes of sickness, as most of the sicknesses are forgotten by the population with passage of time.

KEY WORDS: PASSIVE FOLLOW-UP, URBAN, SLUM COMMUNITY, CHILDREN, SICKNESS, MIGRATION.
 
  <<Back