Objective To evaluate health status of a group of children placed in a residential care in the city of Rome. Design It is a cross-sectional study.Setting We drawn up a questionnaire, which was filled out anonymously by each educator with the data of the child of which each was responsible. Analyses were conducted using the Microsoft Excel 2016 program. We used descriptive statistics to describe patients’ information. Patients We selected the residential care Il Girotondo, located in Rome. In April 2018 it hosted 17 children, 8 boys (47%) and 9 girls (52%), with a mean age of 23.9 ± 14.6 months. 35% (6/17) of children was from Romania, 29% (5/17) of children was from Italy, 18% (3/17) was from Nigeria, 6% (1/17) of children was of Rom ethnicity. One child had the father from Nigeria and the mother from Russia and one children had the father from Bulgaria and the mother from Algeria. The children were admitted to the residential care at a mean age of 15.7 ± 15.1 months. The mean length of stay was 8.4 ± 5.2 months. Interventions Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures Respiratory, urinary, intestinal, neurological, motor and psychological diseases, allergies to pollens or food, the state of vaccination, the re-lationship of the child with other children, the school attended and the academic achievement reported by their teachers. Results Respiratory diseases were the most frequent (37.5%), expecially in the fe-male group (55.6%) than in the male group (14.3%), followed by tendency to isola-tion (18.2%), neurological diseases (17.8%), not being at ease with other children (16.7%), intestinal diseases (11.8%), lack of acceptance by the others children (8.3%), motor diseases (6.3%) and psychological pathologies (5.9%). About respira-tory diseases, asthmatic pathologies affected 12.5% of the sample and the 22.2% of the girls. No one had any urinary diseases or pollen and food allergies. All children were vaccinated. Lastly, 80% of the sample (100% of males and 62.5% of females) did not attend any school. Two girls attended the day care and one girl attended the kindergarten. Conclusions Beyond the psychological pathologies, the children hosted in the alternative care suffer from physical and development disease more than the general pediatric popu-lation. It is needful to perform a systematic analysis of the data to define the real needs for this special paediatric population in order to start them on an appropriate medical path.
HEALTH STATUS OF A GROUP OF CHILDREN IN A RESIDENTIAL CARE OF ROME
Massimo Pettoello Mantovani
Conceptualization
2019-01-01
Abstract
Objective To evaluate health status of a group of children placed in a residential care in the city of Rome. Design It is a cross-sectional study.Setting We drawn up a questionnaire, which was filled out anonymously by each educator with the data of the child of which each was responsible. Analyses were conducted using the Microsoft Excel 2016 program. We used descriptive statistics to describe patients’ information. Patients We selected the residential care Il Girotondo, located in Rome. In April 2018 it hosted 17 children, 8 boys (47%) and 9 girls (52%), with a mean age of 23.9 ± 14.6 months. 35% (6/17) of children was from Romania, 29% (5/17) of children was from Italy, 18% (3/17) was from Nigeria, 6% (1/17) of children was of Rom ethnicity. One child had the father from Nigeria and the mother from Russia and one children had the father from Bulgaria and the mother from Algeria. The children were admitted to the residential care at a mean age of 15.7 ± 15.1 months. The mean length of stay was 8.4 ± 5.2 months. Interventions Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures Respiratory, urinary, intestinal, neurological, motor and psychological diseases, allergies to pollens or food, the state of vaccination, the re-lationship of the child with other children, the school attended and the academic achievement reported by their teachers. Results Respiratory diseases were the most frequent (37.5%), expecially in the fe-male group (55.6%) than in the male group (14.3%), followed by tendency to isola-tion (18.2%), neurological diseases (17.8%), not being at ease with other children (16.7%), intestinal diseases (11.8%), lack of acceptance by the others children (8.3%), motor diseases (6.3%) and psychological pathologies (5.9%). About respira-tory diseases, asthmatic pathologies affected 12.5% of the sample and the 22.2% of the girls. No one had any urinary diseases or pollen and food allergies. All children were vaccinated. Lastly, 80% of the sample (100% of males and 62.5% of females) did not attend any school. Two girls attended the day care and one girl attended the kindergarten. Conclusions Beyond the psychological pathologies, the children hosted in the alternative care suffer from physical and development disease more than the general pediatric popu-lation. It is needful to perform a systematic analysis of the data to define the real needs for this special paediatric population in order to start them on an appropriate medical path.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
