Morbidity in Primary Care Paediatrics in Asturias

Objective: to describe and analyse the morbidity registered in Primary Care Paediatrics in Asturias. Material and methods: descriptive transversal study carried on in the community of Asturias from January to December 2003. The area of research were children under 14 assigned to paediatricians with more than one year of computerized office with OMI-AP: 88,463 children. The source was the clinical computerized history from which information about sex, birth date and date of the episode was obtained as well as the code ICPC (International Classification of Primary Care) associated to the episode. Results: the total number of new ICPC episodes (diagnosis) produced were 91,414. More than 50% of them belonged to children under 6 years of age. The predominant seasons were autumn and winter. A total number of 516 (ICPC) codes were used, from which 17 grouped 65.4% of the episodes; the rest (34%) had a frequency below 1%. Five ICPC chapters covered 82% of the episodes. The respiratory tract conditions were the most diagnosed with a 44.8% of the total number of episodes and upper respiratory tract infection was the most frequent with 23.1% of the total. Conclusion: modern computers allow us to know morbidity.