indian council of medical research - Pondicherry University DSpace ...

jb) Other epidemiolo~ical methods
Data on the spectrum of illness was obtained from 4 sources namely, cross sect~onal
rnorbidlty survey, cohort study, records malnta~ned at the PHC and by the VHN, and
tertiary care hospital
(i) Cross sectional morbidity survey
This included a detailed history and cllnical examination. The results are discussed
separately for them
a History
A total of 265 out of 1,349 chiidren (19.6%) gave a hlstory of havlng suffered from
some form of illness or the other during the prevlous 2 weeks. The types of dlsorders
they had is depicted in Tables 5.13 and 5.14. The common ailo;ents reported were
fever, in 168 (12.5%) children, respiratory Infection in 90(6.7%), headache in 63 (4.7%)
and abdom~nal pain seen in 39 (2 9%) children. Diarrheal disorders, ear discharge, eye
and skln Infections were reported in less than 1.0% of children. The total number of'
dlsorders in g~rls was 162, with an average of 0.3 disorderlchild and the total number of
d~sorders In boys was 219, w~th an average of 0.3 disorderlch~ld. No slgnlflcant
dilln~oti~:~ wns ol~sorvod bolwoo~i y~rls a ~ boys ~ d olll~ar in llia avsrngo dlsordorlcli~ld
( Z = 1 64: p > 0 05) or in the prevalence of reported disorders (p > 0 05; Table 5.15).
In boys, there was not much difference in the reported prevalence of disorders In the
different age groups except headache, which was more in the 5-8 year age group,
whereas for girls, in addltion to headache, fever was also reported more In the 5-8 age
group (Tables 5.13 and 5.14).