Open AccessForm of day care and respiratory infections among Finnish children.
Author(s) -
Pekka Louhiala,
Niina Jaakkola,
R. Ruotsalainen,
Jouni J. K. Jaakkola
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.85.8_pt_1.1109
Subject(s) - medicine , otitis , pneumonia , confidence interval , incidence (geometry) , common cold , relative risk , pediatrics , cohort study , day care , cohort , respiratory infection , retrospective cohort study , respiratory disease , respiratory system , surgery , immunology , lung , physics , optics , nursing
The relationship between respiratory infectious diseases and form of day care was assessed in a retrospective cohort study of 2568 randomly selected children aged 1 through 7 years in Espoo, Finland. Day-care center children had an increased risk for the common cold, acute otitis media, and pneumonia. The risk concentrated in 1-year-old children, for whom the adjusted relative risks (incidence density ratios) for the common cold, otitis media, and pneumonia were 1.69 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.43, 2.01), 1.99 (95% CI = 1.57, 2.52), and 9.69 (95% CI = 2.31, 40.55), respectively. Among 1-year-old children, the proportion of infections attributable to care at day-care centers were 41% (95% CI = 30, 50) for colds, 50% (95% CI = 36, 60) for otitis media, and 85% (95% CI = 57, 98) for pneumonia. The results provide evidence that care in day-care centers is a determinant of acute respiratory infections in children under 2, whereas family day care does not essentially increase risk.