HIGH-CONSULTING CHILDREN INDICATE ILLNESS-PRONE FAMILIES - A STUDY OF38 RURAL AND 38 URBAN SWEDISH CHILDRENS HEALTH AND USE OF MEDICAL-CARE

Objective - To study health problems and use of medical care in a grou p of rural and urban children. To relate a number of socio-demographic factors to the children's consultation frequency. To compare high- an d low-consulting children with respect to socio-economic status of the family and use of medical care and sick-listing pattern of their pare nts. Design - Health check-up at school start. Investigation of the ch ildren's medical records from birth to the age of seven, and of their parents' use of primary medical care during the same period. Setting - Lammhult, a rural community with 3000 inhabitants, and Teleborg, an u rban district with 9000 inhabitants, situated in Vaxjo town, southern Sweden.Subjects - 38 rural and 38 urban preschool children, as well as their parents.Main outcome measures - Medical visits encountered and antibiotic courses prescribed during the first seven years of life. Re sults - Parents having manual occupations and mother being a smoker we re factors of importance for the children's use of health and medical care (i.e. gave a high number of medical visits). The 14 high consulte rs had recurring respiratory tract infections and allergic/asthmatic c omplaints. Their parents were also high users of primary medical care and they were more often sick-listed than parents of low-consulting ch ildren. Rural and urban children made the same number of medical visit s and received the same number of antibiotic courses during their firs t seven years of life. Conclusion - With respect to the chidren's use of health and medical care, we found only minor differences between ru ral and urban children, whereas socio-economic characteristics of the families were of importance. Moreover, high-consulting children had pa rents who were high users of primary medical care and who were often s ick-listed.