All issues > Volume 26(9); 1983

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1983;26(9):843-849. Published online September 30, 1983.

Observation on Chief Complaints of Pediatric Outpatients.

Sang Wook Choi¹, Hyung Ro Moon¹

¹Department of Pediatrics，College of Medicine, Seoul National University

Abstract

Chief complaints of pediatric outpatients may reflect the patterns and severity of illnesses. As with the differences in prevalent illnessess in various periods of childhood, the chief complaints may also vary with age. This study was performed in order to investigate frequencies of various chief complaints in different age periods of childhood and rates of hospitalization for each chief complaint obtained at initial visit to the Outpatient clinic of National Medical Center in Seoul during the period of March 1980 to February 1981. 1) Total number of patients was 3,451, and boys to girls ratio was 1.35 : 1. 2) Nearly one third of the outpatients (29.7%) were 4 weeks to one year of age.However， the highest rate (63.3%) of admitted patients to outpatients was observed in birth to one week of age. 3) No significant seasonal variation was noted in number of outpatients. 4) Chief complaints in decreasing order of frequency in all outpatients were: cough, 23.1%； fever, 12.4%； diarrhea, 8.6%； rhinorrhea, 7.0%； vomiting, 6.4%； abdominal pain, 3.8%; rash, 2.5%； cough with sputum, 2.2%； and jaundice, 2.0%. 5) Top ten chief complaints having high ratio of admission in all outpatients were: edema, 87.8% ； wheezing sound, 83.3%； hematuria, 78.9%: jaundice, 66.0%； convulsion, 54.0% ； bloody mucoid diarrhea, 50.0%； urticaria, 50%； vomiting, 35.0%； check up for heart disease， 34.5%; and poor feeding, 30.9%. 6) Chief complaints which revealed the highest proportion and rate of admission in the various age groups were: jaundice, 59.5% and convulsion, 100% for under one week of age; jaundice, 21.9% and poor feeding, 86.7% for one week to four weeks of age; cough, 25.4% and heart murmur, 53.8% for four weeks to one year of age; cough, 24.1% and bloody diarrhea, 75.0% for one to two years of age; cough, 28.4% and edema, 89.5% for two to six years of age; cough 16.1% and edema, 91.1% for six to twelve years of age; and abdominal pain, 10.4% and edema and jaundice, 75.0% respectively for over twelve years of age.

Keywords :Chief complaints; initial visit; rate of admission.