Abstract
We aimed to study the symptoms and disease profile patterns for which children and adolescents visit a primary care physician in India using a 1-day point-prevalence cross-sectional study design, in 880 cities and towns. Methods: 13,225 practicing general practitioners (GPs), general physicians (Gen Ps) and pediatricians (Ps) were randomly selected based on a proportionate random sampling. They completed a questionnaire based on the validated ICD-10 classification, wherein they captured age, gender, symptoms and diseases of all patients who visited them on the study day. Data was collected, cleaned and entered in Epi Info software. Simple descriptive analysis was performed. Results: 7400 doctors (64.3% GPs, 18.7% GenPs, 17.0% Ps) consented and provided clean data of a total of 65,979 children ≤ 18 years (M: F 57.2%, 42.8%). Fever was the most common symptom present in 49.1% children. 61.3% presented with respiratory symptoms (40.3% cough, 24.5% rhinitis, 9.9% sore throat, 11.3% wheeze and 6.0% breathlessness), 30% had gastrointestinal symptoms, 9.4% had skin related symptoms and 6% had anemia. The most common diagnoses were URTI 9.9%, LRTI 6.8%, ear ache/infections 5.2% and asthma 3.9%. Asthma & LRTI was reported to be more common in non-metropolitan cities than metropolitan cities across all age groups (OR: 1.29, p<0.0001 & OR: 1.47, p<0.0001 resp.). Conclusion: Over 60% of children visit a doctor in India for respiratory symptoms, which are mostly due to upper & lower respiratory tract infections and asthma. Asthma & LRTI in children are more commonly reported from non-metropolitan cities in India.
- © 2013 ERS
