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Clinic Attendances during the First 12 Months of Life for Aboriginal Children in Five Remote Communities of Northern Australia

Kearns, Therese M., Clucas, Danielle, Connors, Christine M., Currie, Bart J., Carapetis, Jonathan R. and Andrews, Ross M. (2013). Clinic Attendances during the First 12 Months of Life for Aboriginal Children in Five Remote Communities of Northern Australia. PLoS One,8(3):e58231-1-e58231-5.

Document type: Journal Article
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Title Clinic Attendances during the First 12 Months of Life for Aboriginal Children in Five Remote Communities of Northern Australia
Author Kearns, Therese M.
Clucas, Danielle
Connors, Christine M.
Currie, Bart J.
Carapetis, Jonathan R.
Andrews, Ross M.
Journal Name PLoS One
Publication Date 2013
Volume Number 8
Issue Number 3
ISSN 1932-6203   (check CDU catalogue open catalogue search in new window)
Scopus ID 2-s2.0-84874570880
Start Page e58231-1
End Page e58231-5
Total Pages 5
Place of Publication United States of America
Publisher Public Library of Science
HERDC Category C1 - Journal Article (DIISR)
Abstract Background
The vast majority (>75%) of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory (NT) live in remote or very remote locations. Children in these communities have high attendance rates at local Primary Health Care (PHC) centres but there is a paucity of studies documenting the reason and frequency of attendance. Such data can be used to help guide public health policy and practice.

Methods and Findings
Clinic presentations during the first year of life were reviewed for 320 children born from 1 January 2001–31 December 2006. Data collected included reason for infectious presentation, antibiotic prescription and referral to hospital. The median number of presentations per child in the first year of life was 21 (IQR 15–29) with multiple reasons for presentation. The most prominent infectious presentations per child during the first year of life were upper respiratory tract infections (median 6, IQR 3–10 ); diarrhoea (median 3, IQR 1–5); ear disease (median 3, IQR 1–5); lower respiratory tract infection (median 3, IQR 2–5); scabies (median 3, IQR 1–5); and skin sores (median 3, IQR 2–5).

Conclusions
Infectious diseases of childhood are strongly linked with poverty, poor living conditions and overcrowding. The data reported in our study were collected through manual review, however many remote communities now have established electronic health record systems, use the Key Performance Indicator System and are engaged in CQI (continuous quality improvement) processes. Building on these recent initiatives, there is an opportunity to incorporate routine monitoring of a range of infectious conditions (we suggest diarrhoea, LRTI, scabies and skin sores) using both the age at first presentation and the median number of presentations per child during the first year of life as potential indicators of progress in addressing health inequities in remote communities.
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058231   (check subscription with CDU E-Gateway service for CDU Staff and Students  check subscription with CDU E-Gateway in new window)
Additional Notes This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Description for Link Link to CC Attribution 4.0 License
URL https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/au/legalcode


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